Emergency measures to prevent gridlock in health services in Bradford appear to have averted a major crisis despite long waits for treatment for patients over New Year.

Health chiefs had urged people in the area to use out-of-hours services sparingly over the holiday after huge problems caused by the flu bug at Christmas.

GP surgeries were asked to open on Saturday to cope with demand from patients and extra out-of-hours staff had been placed on duty.

A spokesman for Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust said casualty had dealt with about 300 patients each day over the week-end, which was about normal, but there had been more than double the usual number of ill-ness-related cases, giving staff significantly different problems.

Patients had faced waits for admission from casualty of up to six hours but sicker people had been given priority and were admitted more quickly.

A spokesman for the Birkenshaw-based West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service said demand had eased slightly over the weekend with about 800 calls dealt with each day compared to the 500 normally expected.

But Amanda Coates, 23, of West Park Road, Girlington, Bradford, said she waited 17 hours to see an emergency doctor about her six-week-old son William who had flu.

She called the on-call doctor at 8.15pm on Friday and an appointment was arranged at a centre at Leeds Road Hospital but an ambulance arranged to take them never arrived.

The appointment was cancelled and she was told by the out-of-hours service she was not a priority and would have to wait until morning, forcing her to spend all night up with her son. Her case was passed to her own GP who visited at 1.20pm on Saturday.

"They told me it wasn't an emergency but to me it was. I couldn't put him down and he was screaming. I don't know what I'd have done if anything had happened to him."

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