A MAN with kidney disease claims he was asked to wait several hours before the out of hours doctors' service would do anything to alleviate his severe pain.

Darren Fielden, 33, who has had kidney disease for 19 years, had been ill for a week and had vomited all night when he phoned the doctor at 3am in the morning.

He was told that he would have to wait until 8am before he could be given any advice. The doctor claimed he needed to get some test results from St James' ("Jimmy's") Hospital which could not be done until the morning.

Darren's mum, Hazel, said: "We told him the situation and he said 'I am sorry there is nothing I can do before 8am' because he could not get any information from St James'."

Unable to watch her son in pain, Hazel phoned Jimmy's, where there is someone available 24 hours, and got the results herself. She was told to take Darren to Airedale Hospital straight away for blood tests.

"Darren was getting more and more distressed obviously."

He even told the doctor that he was going to have a terrible few hours if he did not get help, said Hazel.

"In our view what he should have done was to refer to Leeds and get more information about Darren straight away. The fact remains that he required attention that night and needed to be checked on. You expect them to tell you whether there is any danger."

Darren, of Gladstone Street, Skipton, said he was "pretty mad" about not being able to get any help. "I expected them to at least come out or contact Jimmy's for advice," he said.

Later the same day when Darren went for dialysis at St James', he was so unwell that he was kept in hospital for almost two weeks.

Darren added that he was concerned about the organisation of the out of hours doctors' service.

He said the doctors could come from anywhere in the region and were unlikely to have any idea of the patient's history. He preferred the old system where you could contact the on-call doctor from your own surgery.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Health Authority said they would not comment to the press but added that Darren could contact them directly and his concerns would be dealt with.

Darren, who is a youth worker with Upper Wharfedale Youth Club, was diagnosed with kidney disease when he was 14 and has been on dialysis since he was 15.

He received a kidney transplant when he was 24, which lasted for six years before it failed, and he is now waiting for another kidney. He currently has to travel to St James' three times a week and stay there from 7pm to 1.15am for dialysis.

Hazel, who has been campaigning for more organ donors to register on the national transplant list for many years, is also pressing Craven District Council to stop cars parking on both sides of Gladstone Street. She said that over the years ambulances had struggled to get up the road to reach Darren.

She contacted the council three years ago and was told that nothing would be done within the next 18 months. She is still waiting for action.