Pneumonia patient forced to wait in Royal Gwent Hospital car park in her pyjamas at 3am

Julie Clarke, 24, stood outside for 45 minutes, in just her pyjamas, until her mother arrived.

She had been sitting in the A&E waiting room, but was approached three times by a member of staff who, after joking about the time Ms Clarke had been sitting there, asked her to wait outside.

Ms Clarke, from Cwmbran, said she couldn't understand why the staff member singled her out for attention.

"I looked a bit scruffy and I had my overnight bag with me, but I had a tag on my wrist and she could see I was a patient," she said.

Ms Clarke said the first time the staff member approached her, she explained she was waiting for a lift. But then, 15 minutes later, she returned and asked Ms Clarke again why she was sitting in the waiting room.

Ten minutes later, the staff member came back – this time with two security guards.

"I had to ring my mum in front of her," Ms Clarke said, proving to the staff member that her story was true.

Ms Clarke added: "She asked me: 'Where's she coming from – bloody Scotland?'"

"There's no need for that. It's not like I was causing any trouble. Then she asked me to leave."

Ms Clarke then sat on the floor in the hospital car park until her mother, who had only left the hospital hours earlier and was asleep when her daughter originally called, arrived to take her home.

Since that incident, which happened in the early hours of Tuesday, March 19, Ms Clarke said her condition has worsened. She has been unable to go to work and branded her experience "disgusting".

In a statement, a spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which runs the Royal Gwent, said: “It is not our policy or usual practice to ask any of our patients to leave our A&E waiting area without good reason.

"We cannot discuss individual cases due to patient confidentiality, but we would urge Ms Clarke to get in touch with us so we can look into her concerns.”