A MENTAL health patient claims she was twice forced to sleep on the floor.

The 35-year-old woman said she was told there were no beds when she arrived at the Lakes mental health unit around 3am on April 18 – a claim the unit denies.

She said staff at the unit, in Turner Road, Colchester, had made her a bed of a thin sheet and a pillow in an interview room.

North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the unit, said no patient would ever be asked to sleep on a floor.

The Greenstead woman, who does not wish to be named, said the experience had left her humiliated. She said: “I don’t know of any NHS service that would make you sleep on a hard, cold floor.

“It was so uncomfortable. It was humiliating. I was already very distressed.

“Why don’t they have camping beds or mattresses for emergency patients?

“I am shocked they would flatly deny what I’m saying. I have no reason to lie.”

The mother-of-one, who also praised nurses at the Lakes, was transferred to a hospital in Harlow the next morning, where she said there were at least five vacant beds.

She questioned why she was not transferred as soon as she arrived at the Lakes. The woman said: “The care I got there was always good and the nurses are very nice.

“But sleeping on the floor in a side room didn’t do me any good.”

She also claimed she was given a make-shift bed two years ago, when she was first went into the Lakes.

A trust spokesman said: “We are aware of the case and are meeting the person concerned to discuss her care.

“However, no one is ever asked to sleep on a floor. We have 36 beds at the Lakes, and at times all of our beds are occupied.

“On these occasions, we identify a bed in another part of the trust. But it is not always possible to arrange safe transfers of patients between our facilities immediately, particularly in the early hours.”