LETTER: A 19-hour wait in A&E to start the new year

Doctors and nurses at work in the Accident and Emergency Department at Leeds General Infirmary. Picture by Anna Gowthorpe

Having read your article about Dewsbury A&E over the festive period I felt I had to get in touch.

My mother-in-law is one of the constituents that MP Tracy Brabin refers to.

In the article it states that people were using A&E that didn’t need to.

I would like to point out my mother-in-law started with a common cold which left her with bad chesty cough.

I rang 111 at lunchtime on January 1 and asked for a doctor to visit as she is elderly and disabled.

We were contacted over five hours later and were advised that over 100 people were in front of us waiting for a doctor and that we would have to wait until the next day.

Within a couple of hours my mother-in-law deteriorated and we called 111 again.

This time they then sent an emergency ambulance. So, after trying to avoid putting pressure on our local A&E department, we were forced to use Dewsbury A&E.

I witnessed some shocking scene that evening in the department.

We were left waiting 19 hours for a place on a ward.

If people were using A&E unnecessarily then why was there a 19-hour wait for a bed on a ward?

It might explain the need to see an A&E doctor, but not on the wait to be found a bed.

Once on a ward I witnessed nursing staff left with no choice but to put two patients in a cubicle.

Christine Warrillow, by email