{"id":4801,"date":"2026-07-09T11:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/grandma-who-needed-plaster-for-cut-finger-told-to-dial-999\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:02:17","slug":"grandma-who-needed-plaster-for-cut-finger-told-to-dial-999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/grandma-who-needed-plaster-for-cut-finger-told-to-dial-999\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandma who needed plaster for cut finger told to &#039;dial 999&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-07-09 11:02:15<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>A grandmother who cut her finger while preparing lunch was left stunned after claiming she was told to call 999 because neither her local pharmacy nor GP surgery could help.<BR><br \/>\nPauline Shillito, 84, sliced her finger while cutting a melon at her home in Lydd, Kent. Although the injury was minor, the wound continued to bleed because she takes blood-thinning medication.<BR><br \/>\nAccording to the Mirror, Mrs Shillito walked to her nearby Well Pharmacy hoping someone could clean the cut and apply a plaster.<BR><br \/>\nShe told the publication: \u201cBut the pharmacist said, \u2018We don\u2019t deal with blood.\u2019<BR><br \/>\n\u201cSo then I went to the GP, but the receptionist said, \u2018We have no nurse on duty today,\u2019 and told me to call 999.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely disgusting. Can you imagine an ambulance coming because of a cut finger when there are people having heart attacks, all I needed was a plaster.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nPharmacist Tunde Odelade claimed the pharmacy was unable to treat the injury because staff were not trained or insured to deal with bleeding wounds.<BR><br \/>\nHe said: \u201cThere was a lot of blood. It was literally dripping down her arm onto the floor, in a pharmacy full of people, that\u2019s very unhygienic.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cI told her I couldn\u2019t help her because I can\u2019t deal with blood. I did offer to take her details and call an ambulance, but she refused.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nMrs Shillito said she also visited Orchard House GP Surgery, where she was allegedly told there was no nurse on duty and advised to call 999.<BR><br \/>\nFortunately, a neighbour spotted the pensioner walking home in tears and came to her rescue.<BR><br \/>\nThe grandmother explained: \u201cShe saw me crying with a piece of blood-soaked kitchen towel around my finger and helped me. She cleaned my finger and put a plaster on it. I\u2019m just lucky I have good neighbours.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nA spokesperson for Invicta Health, which operates Orchard House Surgery, said it could not comment on individual cases because of patient confidentiality, but said the practice is committed to directing patients to the most appropriate healthcare service based on their clinical needs.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-07-09 11:02:15 A grandmother who cut her finger while preparing lunch was left stunned after claiming she was told to call 999 because neither her local pharmacy nor GP surgery&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4803,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801\/revisions\/4803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}