A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl was left waiting for 13 hours in A&E at a Harrow hospital.
Donna Beauchamp, 33, of Burnt Oak Broadway, says her daughter Morgan was rushed to Northwick Park Hospital by ambulance at around 10.30pm after an asthma attack.
Morgan is a chronic asthma sufferer and needs more than just a pump to return her blood to normal oxygen levels but was kept waiting overnight for more than triple the hospital's four-hour target.
Eventually she was admitted as an in-patient for two days before being released having recovered from the attack.
Mrs Beauchamp said: “I just think it's disgusting. They've put my daughter and myself through unbelievable misery and they could have just done so much better for her.
“I'm just really disgusted with the whole situation.”
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Northwick Park, admitted in early November it did not have enough beds to deal with fluctuating levels of demand and said it was “revisiting our bed closure programme”.
Concerns have been growing as the winter months approach, when admissions generally increase.
The hospital was forced to start the closures to close a budget deficit under the previous Government but managers now say beds are being re-opened to meet demand, which has risen by around 11 per cent.
Mrs Beauchamp has been visiting the hospital with her daughter for three years and says the service was always fine up until September when the first signs of pressure on the A&E department emerged.
She said her and Morgan were kicked out at 6am on that occasion with staff saying they needed to give the bed to someone else.
Theresa Hart, a spokesman for the trust, said: “We are sorry this patient has had to wait longer than normal in our hospital but we have been exceptionally busy in A&E treating more patients than ever.
“Unfortunately this means that some patients may have to wait longer before they are admitted to the ward. Nevertheless we work to give our patients the best possible care.”
She said the hospital is carrying out a full investigation and will report back to the family.
A report presented to the trust board in November said while feedback on its plans for dealing with a surge in pressure over the winter period “was excellent" there were two areas of concern relating to bed capacity and additional staffing levels.
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