Dad voices concern at how unconscious woman was treated in Blacks (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Dad voices concern at how unconscious woman was treated in Blacks

1:00pm Friday 1st March 2013 in News By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

Staff tend to the injured woman. Pic by Chris Derrick

A SHOPPER has complained that staff in a Basingstoke shop did not do enough to help a woman who was unconscious and bleeding after falling inside the store.

Chris Derrick has complained to Blacks following the incident last Saturday, when an elderly woman fell inside the Festival Place shop at about 2.20pm. Mr Derrick, a 42-year-old, from Brighton Hill, Basingstoke, said the woman was unconscious for several minutes, struggling to breathe and was bleeding from her head, nose and mouth. He claims the woman’s daughter was left to help her mother on her own as staff carried on with their work.

The father-of-four said: “I shouted at the staff to call the emergency services as this was serious and she was bleeding badly, but no one did anything but stare or carry on with making sales.”

Mr Derrick, who was with his four children before the incident, started to call 999 but was told by a member of staff in Blacks that the Festival Place first aid team was on its way. He added: “When the woman’s daughter asked for something to cushion her mother’s head, again, staff did absolutely nothing to assist. Instead, I collected some items of clothing from the rails and fashioned a crude pillow from them.”

Mr Derrick emailed Blacks’ customer services, complaining about the way staff responded to the incident. He said: “I have never witnessed such a lack of compassion, and feel so disgusted by what I saw that I cannot let this lie.”

However, a member of staff at the store and the centre director of Festival Place have both defended the way in which the incident was handled.

David, a supervisor at Blacks, who declined to give his surname, said: “The manager was very happy with the way the staff dealt with the incident.

“The centre staff (from Festival Place) said we did everything correctly as well. The family of the casualty were completely happy as well and that man was the only person there who had any issue.”

Steven Connolly, centre director at Festival Place, said Festival Place staff were called to the scene at 2.20pm, and upon arrival found that an ambulance had already been called by staff in Blacks. It arrived six minutes later.

He added: “If she was in an area away from members of the public, it wouldn’t be unusual for members of staff to carry on serving. From all the information I have, Blacks did everything that was expected of them.”

A statement from Blacks customer services said: “We acknowledge we have received the complaint from the customer and this has been passed on to the relevant team to investigate.”