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Patient near death after leaving NHS hospital where Costa Coffee used as ward

Kent woman Janet Pott, 73, was left disgusted after her husband Nick went missing from the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford before being found in a ditch

[Janet Pott and Nick Sheppard next to each other holding hands]

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Janet Pott and Nick Sheppard were left unhappy with the 75-year-old's care at a Kent hospital(Image: Barry Goodwin/Cover Images)

A patient was left close to death after disappearing from an NHS hospital so overwhelmed by overcrowding that a Costa Coffee shop had been turned into a makeshift ward.

The terrifying ordeal unfolded at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, where 75-year-old Nick Sheppard vanished after spending more than a day on a trolley in a packed A&E corridor.

He was later found barely alive in nearby woodland, suffering from hypothermia and severe dehydration. His partner of more than 50 years, Janet Pott, 73, said the experience has shattered her faith in the NHS and exposed a system at breaking point.

Janet described reliving what she called the worst 44 hours of my life as she waited for news of Nick, who disappeared on the same day the hospital was forced to convert its Costa Coffee outlet into a temporary ward due to a critical shortage of beds.

[Patients on beds at a Costa Coffee site at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford]

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The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford has been so busy that a Costa Coffee was used as a ward(Image: Submitted./Cover Images)

With every hour that passed, I believed more and more that he was going to be found dead, she said after Nick had been taken to hospital after collapsing in a Co-op in Dover.

He hit his head and was left concussed and bleeding heavily. After treatment, he was placed on a trolley in a corridor, where Janet stayed overnight as they waited for heart tests.

At around 10pm the following evening, Janet briefly fell asleep on the trolley mattress. When she woke, Nick was gone. She added: I just said, Wheres Nick gone? And nobody knew. Nobody.

It later emerged Nick had walked out through a rear gate, likely confused due to his head injury. Police launched a major search and circulated a missing person appeal. Janet was consumed with guilt.

The longer it went on, the worse it got, the pensioner said. I kept crying. I thought, if they find him dead, he died because I went to sleep.

[Janet sat at a table at her home]

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Janet was left in a panic after her husband of 50 years went missing from the ward(Image: Barry Goodwin/Cover Images)

Nick was eventually discovered 44 hours later in woods behind the hospital, lying in a ditch he had desperately tried to climb out of, but to no avail.

Janet recalled the moment police called her, saying: I just said to her, Is he still alive? and she said: He is, Jan, but hes really, really bad.

Nick spent 19 days in intensive care and weeks more on a ward, suffering kidney failure, internal bleeding and extreme weight loss. He has no memory of what happened.

Janet was left fuming over how her husband could go back into hospital with a head injury that he originally hadn't been admitted for after his fall.

[A graphic showing patient waiting times for available beds]

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Patient waiting times for available beds has exploded in Kent(Image: Cover Images)

Nick added: I know they saved my life, but they shouldnt have had to. It makes me so upset, how I am now. I used to be fit now I walk like a hundred-year-old.

Janet believes overcrowding and corridor care were to blame. She said: A vulnerable patient with a head injury should not be able to walk out unnoticed. It was like a warzone. Its putting people off going to hospital theyve lost faith in the NHS, and so have I.

East Kent Hospitals Trust has apologised and said the incident is under review. NHS figures show 2025 was the worst year on record in Kent for 12-hour trolley waits, with more than 28,000 recorded.

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