An angry Kevin Bain contacted the Daily Liberal yesterday to complain that his 71-year-old wife Mavis, suffering from diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and dementia, deserved better.

“I wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone else,” said the pensioner who called for “more doctors and better facilities for patients” at the hospital.

The Greater Western Area Health Service responded to the complaint yesterday with advice that Mrs Bain arrived at the hospital by ambulance at 9.55pm on Saturday

and was “assessed immediately ... to ensure her

condition was not life threatening”.

Its spokesperson disputed that Mrs Bain waited 18 hours to see a doctor, insisting such a consultation took place at 4.05am on Sunday.

She said “while this is longer than we would have liked”, it had been “a particularly busy weekend”.

“The doctor on duty, and also the head of the E (emergency department), personally apologised to Mrs Bain and her family for the time they had to wait for her tests to be reviewed,” the spokesperson said.

She said it was “standard practice” for some patients to be told not to eat or drink while waiting to see a doctor.

Mrs Bain’s trip to hospital followed a fall onto tiles on Saturday night.

An ambulance travelled from Coonamble to collect the injured woman and ferry her to Dubbo Base.

“They took her into a cubicle in the emergency department and left her there,” said Mr Bain, who travelled to Dubbo by car.

“The doctor never came near her that night.”

Nurses had kept a watch on Mrs Bain and moved her to another cubicle to be closer to the medical staff, who ordered a CT scan and an X-ray, the husband said.

Mr Bain alleges minimal explanation of her nil-by-mouth status, although one “young nurse” told him the “doctor could send her for an operation”.

“She arrived at the hospital about 9.30pm on Saturday night and was seen by a doctor after 3.30pm on Sunday,” he said.

Mr Bain, 67, who says he stayed by his wife in hospital, remembers the emergency department being “pretty busy” on Saturday night and Sunday.

The Greater Western says Mrs Bain was discharged with “a referral for follow-up care” after her tests were reviewed on Sunday afternoon.

“Dubbo Base Hospital apologises to Mrs Bain and her family for the delays,”the spokesperson said.

“Whilst these delays inconveniences Mrs Bain, at no time was her care compromised.”