A woman with suspected meningitis was placed in an A&E corridor for 19 hours and put on a drip propped up by a model skeleton, her mother has said.

Alexandra Leat said her 28-year-old daughter Cleo Rawlings had spent her birthday on Thursday with a severe headache in Salisbury District Hospital, which was "full to capacity" and "every bed was taken".

Rawlings' drip was held up by a medical training skeleton, while other patients' drips were hanging from picture frames, said Leat.

The hospital said it "sincerely apologised" the teaching skeleton was not removed from the drip stand before its use, which "fell below standards we expect". It added staff were working under "sustained pressure".

Leat told the BBC she and her daughter had been sat on chairs in the corridor from about 22:00 BST on Tuesday until 19:00 BST on Wednesday.

Following multiple tests, doctors ruled out meningitis and sent her daughter home with painkillers and antibiotics, suspecting a viral infection and a possible tooth infection.

Speaking about the use of the model skeleton, Leat said: "I was a bit shocked because I wondered what was going on.

"Then I looked around me to see that other people had all their drips hanging off picture frames.

"One of the nurses said 'I'm going to have to improvise because we just don't have any more stock. So I'm now going to improvise'.

"And she was looking all around the corridors to see what she could use."

Leat said Rawlings had a blanket around her eyes for most of their time in the corridor as "she couldn't bare the lights".

"Unfortunately, [Cleo was] under an extreme amount of stress, because she was just feeling so poorly, she had nowhere to lay down, she had nowhere to sit but a chair. She was bunched up on a chair for basically 19 hours," she said.

"It's very unfortunate. The hospital was very busy, they were completely full to capacity.

"All the staff there were doing a great job and doing everything they can to look after people, but the delays were extreme that night."

A Salisbury District Hospital spokesperson said: "We sincerely apologise that a member of our staff did not remove the teaching skeleton from the drip stand before it was used in the treatment of a patient.

"This fell below the standards we expect, did not comply with our policies and procedures, and is unacceptable and insensitive. We have addressed this directly with the staff member involved and reinforced the relevant policy requirements."

The spokesperson added: "The emergency department continues to experience exceptionally high demand, and our staff are working incredibly hard under sustained pressure to provide safe, compassionate and effective care for patients.

"However, these pressures do not diminish our responsibility to maintain the highest professional standards, and we are committed to learning from incidents and taking appropriate action when standards are not met."

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