A 70 year old woman has spoken of her five hour ordeal waiting in a corridor for a bed at Leeds General Infirmary.

Doreen Earney, right, was left in a corridor waiting area dressed only in a nightgown after being rushed to the hospital with severe head pains.

The angry Otley pensioner said that although people were coming and going, she was left by herself for long periods and, after getting to the LGI at 4pm, it was 9pm before she finally got onto a ward.

Now Mrs Earney is calling for more facilities at the current Wharfedale Hospital or at the proposed new hospital at Garnett's Paper Mill in Otley. And her appeal comes in the same week that Otley Town Council has taken a hard line against the loss of hospital services in the town and called for as many people as possible to attend a crunch meeting in Leeds on Monday.

Mrs Earney, from Belmont Avenue, said: "I was in a ward where an elderly lady had waited 22 hours for a bed and another waited nine hours. I was the lucky one with just five hours wait. It really was terrible. People were coming and going out of the seating area. Nurses did keep asking if I was alright, but I was left on my own for long stretches at a time.

" I kept asking 'is there a bed yet?' and they just kept on saying 'no' there wasn't and they were waiting for someone to be discharged. It's crazy when you think that there are wards going empty at Wharfedale General Hospital."

The horrendous wait for a bed was only one of the problems Mrs Earney, who eventually spent three nights in hospital, had to face. She said: "While I was there I had no visitors as elderly friends cannot use public transport, which is not reliable, and car

drivers found that there was nowhere to park when they got there. I only live ten minutes' away from Wharfedale General Hospital and it doesn't make sense to send me all the way to Leeds. I hate to think what would happen if someone had a heart attack and you had to tackle the traffic through Headingley to get there."

Mrs Earney also said that the nurses and doctors were sadly overworked and there was the usual shortage of beds. "I had to go to Otley Hospital last week for an outpatient appointment and as always the care and attention was first class," she added.

"The nurses and doctors were wonderful at the LGI, but I just hope Wharfedale hospital remains open so that we do not have to battle our way down to Leeds in the future.

"We keep being told that by going to the LGI we'll receive the best treatment, but I've already had that at Wharfedale General on the numerous occasions I've been there. Why change anything? It all boils down to finances again, which is a shame."

A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust said: "We are awaiting the results of a public consultation undertaken by Leeds Health Authority on the reconfiguration of hospital services in Leeds, and it would not be appropriate to comment in detail until the results of that are known. The hospital is one of the busiest in the country and regrettably there have been times recently when patients have had to wait for a bed. We are attempting to improve the situation, but the causes of these delays are complex.

"We have consistently said we wish to decongest the LGI and St James's by offering a wide range of clinically appropriate procedures close to people's homes, for example Wharfedale and Seacroft hospitals.At the new Wharfedale Hospital, the plan is to offer a much-enhanced range of outpatient services."

He added that people suffering heart attacks or major trauma already go to the LGI where there is access to very highly specialised equipment, doctors and nurses. This is in line with clinical advice and best practice nationally.

l Health chiefs meet on Monday at Leeds Civic Hall to discuss the results of a long public consultation on the reconfiguration of health services in Leeds - including revised proposals for Wharfedale hospital.

Otley Town Council is urging as many people as possible to go to the meeting and is also calling on the support of local GPs and other health professionals to back it in its calls to retain a hospital with extensive

services in the town.

Councillor Jim Spencer said: "The town council is commissioning a survey of the health professionals involved as to the desirability of overnight surgery at Otley. From our personal contacts we feel there has been a lack of consultation with the professionals involved and we intend to find out for ourselves what the clinicians actually feel."

He added that the council was also trying to find out just why services were being removed from Otley and whether there was any proof larger hospitals were safer than smaller ones. "The council has written to the health authority and to the Royal College of Surgeons in search of evidence," he said.

Monday's meeting is due to start at 2pm and will be preceded by a display of the proposals with site plans from 1pm.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.