An 84-year-old man waited nearly six hours at Kingston Hospital Accident and Emergency department on Wednesday, only to be told to go home or wait indefinitely.

He had phoned an ambulance because his feet had gone completely numb and was worried because he has diabetes.

But as he sat and waited more than a dozen more seriously ill people were brought in and at one point, he said, there were 60 people waiting to be seen.

From 10.50am to 4.30pm he sat and waited, while the reason for his feet and parts of his legs being numb went unchecked.

He said: "I felt sorry for the people there. There were some women who were crying with pain.

"I do feel that at Kingston they simply do not have enough staff. They were completely overwhelmed and after several hours the doctor came in and said we will have to wait longer."

At that point Mr Fox, who suffers from diabetes, decided to go home and take care of himself, a luxury many of the people in the ward did not have.

And although the most serious cases were rightly being seen to first, a lot of people in a lot of discomfort were left waiting.

Mr Fox said: "It is a desperate situation and I am sure it is the same all over the country.

"The doctor who came down was definitely frustrated by the system."

But Kingston Hospital was quick to reassure people that this is not indicative of the impressive new A&E department.

Hospital chief executive, John Langan, said: "On December 19 there was a shortage of doctors in the morning due to sickness.

"The duty doctor considered that the best course of action was to give patients a chance to wait longer, go to another hospital or come back the following day."

So far this Christmas the hospital has coped with the influx of patients and waiting times are at a reasonable level according to a government report published last week.

A hospital spokesman said: "It was just a bad day I'm afraid."

December 28, 2001 16:00