Just under 8,000 people were left waiting more than four hours for emergency care at Northwick Park Hospital last month - and one person compared her experience this week to a “stampede”.
Figures from the NHS show that 372 people had to wait more than 12 hours to be admitted at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, in July.
A total of 7,953 people had to wait more than four hours at the trust, and just 70 per cent of patients admitted were seen within four hours – the NHS says that 95% of patients should be admitted, transferred, or discharged in that time.
One woman, who wishes to not be named, accompanied her father to Northwick Park Hospital on Monday (August 15) after being told there were no appointments available by their GP.
She said: “We went to A&E and it was chaos. You know in a airport where they announce a gate and there’s a stampede of people running towards the gate – it just felt a bit like that.
“I kind of describe it as market day, because you have hundreds of people and doctors calling names and nurses calling names from every different direction. It was insane, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The family waited two and a half hours as her father required an “urgent” check-up, but she claims others said they had to wait nearly eight hours.
“It was almost standing room only, there was just nowhere to sit,” she added.
In the end, it turned out the scare could have been resolved with a doctor’s appointment, and she wondered how many others waiting could have just gone to their GP had appointments been available.
She said: “I cannot fault the doctors and nurses we saw. They were so patient and took time to explain everything.
“This isn’t a problem with doctors and nurses, it’s because the government has consistently cut health and social care and the GPs are so stretched that you can’t get a doctor’s appointment unless you wait two weeks.”
Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas has been calling for the waiting list issue to be resolved.
He said: “Patients in Harrow in need of emergency medical attention are forced to wait far too long to be seen, left for hours often in serious pain.
“The Conservatives have already shut three walk-in centres locally, which got patients in front of a doctor or nurse within an hour and kept some of the pressure off Northwick Park.
“I’m very worried that these delays are putting people off going to A&E who need medical attention. Unacceptable waits will mean people in Harrow could fall through the cracks.”
Mr Thomas added that the NHS is facing “the biggest crisis in history” and claims there are no apparent plans “to even begin to fix this”.
He concluded: “Among those 6.7 million on waiting lists, there could be a huge number of undiagnosed conditions like cancer. Record waiting times have a cost in lives.”
Greenbrook Healthcare, which helps operate the urgent care unit at Northwick Park, has been approached for comment.
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