A PATIENT has been made to wait nearly six hours in the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU)at Llandudno Hospital.

After having waited for nearly six hours they were also unable to see a doctor after the service was removed from the Llandudno MIU last year.

An elderly Llandudno resident, who wished not to be named, took her husband - who also suffers from dementia - to the MIU for an x-ray after he expressed pain falling a fall he had a few days before.

They arrived at about midday and throughout the course of the afternoon were seen by a variety of different nurses before finally getting an x-ray and offered no food or drink during their wait.

The elderly resident said: "We were just sat there, waiting to see the triage nurse, we never even had a drink.

"It would have been aweful if my husband had had a broken arm and we were just sat there for that length of time.

"There was a lady sat by us that had fallen and had her teeth go through her cheek, she was spitting blood.

"She said she had been waiting from about 10.30am until 3.45pm and was still waiting."

But it wasn't just the waiting time that concerned the Llandudno resident, but the lack of doctor.

The elderly resident said: "To have no doctor is ridiculous. And they don't touch kids under five, so if a kid has a fall they have to go all the way to Bangor or Glan Clwyd and the A55 is dreadful at the moment."

President of the Hospital Action Group, and former Llandudno Mayor, Carol Marubbi said this was a "disgrace and something needed to be done.

She said: "There has to be a doctor there, to have them re-deployed elsewhere is not right.

"What I've seen is disgraceful, for people to wait five and a half hours, old people some of them."

Both Ms Marubbi and the Llandudno resident said the nurses there are doing a fantastic job, but needed a doctor to help support them.

Executive Director for Primary and Community Care for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Chris Stockport said the removal of doctors from MIU was common across the region.

Mr Stockport added: "All Minor Injury Units (MIUs) in North Wales, including the Unit in Llandudno, are staffed by Emergency Nurse Practitioners, treating a wide range of conditions, such as sprains, scalds, cuts and fractures.

"The vast majority of people who attend the MIU will be seen, treated and discharged in less than four hours.

"We always aim to provide timely access to care, but unfortunately on 4 days in September some patients attending the Llandudno MIU had to wait longer than 4 hours.

"Over the course of the month 14 of the 1362 patients attending the Unit had to wait more than 4 hours and we apologise for this.

"Some patients who attend our MIUs across North Wales need to have more specialist care at an Emergency Department at one of our District General Hospitals.”