THE wife of a man who is dying of cancer claims her husband was left waiting at home in excruciating pain for more than eight hours before being admitted to hospital fewer than 15 miles from his home.
William Parrish (71), of Lynchmere, was at home with his wife, Barbara, recovering from an intensive five-day programme of radiotherapy.
Suffering from brain cancer, and in desperate need of specialist medical attention, Mr Parrish asked his wife to arrange for him to be referred back to the nearby Macmillan unit at King Edward VII Hospital in Midhurst.
But because it was a Saturday, Mrs Parrish was advised by the cancer unit to phone for an emergency doctor through the out-of-hours GP deputising service, Healthcall.
Frantic about her husband's rapidly deteriorating condition, Mrs Parrish claims she called Healthcall at around 1 pm on December 15.
But Mr Parrish did not arrive at the Macmillan unit of King Edward VII Hospital, Milford, until 9-15 pm.
Mrs Parrish said: "I am absolutely appalled by the treatment Bill has received from Healthcall. I gave them all his details over the phone and told them that he was seriously ill. They assured me that a doctor would see him as soon as possible."
Almost three hours later, claimed Mrs Parrish, her husband had still not been seen by a doctor. At a loss for what to do, Mrs Parrish called the Macmillan nurses to tell them of her husband's worsening condition. The cancer-care unit agreed to accept him but said that he would need to be referred by a doctor.
At 3 pm Mrs Parrish phoned Healthcall again to find out how much longer they would have to wait for a doctor.
She was asked to repeat her husband's details and she claimed she was told again that a doctor would be sent out as soon as possible. The Healthcall doctor eventually arrived at Mr Parrish' home at approximately 4-30 pm.
"My husband was very upset and in terrible agony. The doctor stayed with him for literally a couple of minutes," said Mrs Parrish.
The doctor agreed that Mr Parrish should be referred immediately to a specialist care unit.
In spite of being told by Mrs Parrish that her husband was under the care of the Macmillan unit, where he had previously been treated, she claims the doctor then called the main King Edward VII Hospital.
A spokesman for Healthcall has since confirmed to The Herald that the King Edward VII Hospital would not take Mr Parrish as a direct emergency referral.
Barbara Parrish said: "The doctor told me that my husband would have to go to Haslemere hospital, as an emergency measure, and stay there until a bed was available at the Macmillan unit."
Unaware of the confusion and alarmed that Mr Parrish had not arrived at the cancer care unit, Mr Parrish's Macmillan nurse phoned the couple's to ask what had happened. After hearing their problems, she decided to go to see Mr Parrish and arrange for him to be taken to the hospital herself. She arrived at their home at 7 pm.
"As soon as she saw my husband, the nurse told me that he was dying. I was completely at my wits' end. The Macmillan nurse was brilliant to us, but with Healthcall there was a total lack of co-ordination."
But the nurse discovered that all local ambulances were out on call, and that Mr Parrish would have to wait for an ambulance from Bognor Regis, 30 miles away.
Mr Parrish finally arrived at the Macmillan unit just after 9 pm. "He was so very tired that he slept for almost two days. He is still in a lot of pain and we are not sure when he will be able to come home again."
Asked if she would use Healthcall again, Mrs Parrish said it would be as the very "last resort".
"It seems that Bill can only afford to fall ill between Monday to Friday. But unfortunately we are unable to make these types of arrangements," she said.
A spokesman for Healthcall said the case would be thoroughly investigated. "Healthcall is not an emergency service, it is a deputising service to provide cover for times when the patient's GP is unavailable. If Mr Parrish had been ill between his GP's normal hours of surgery it would probably have taken a few hours for the doctor to be able to come out and see him.
"Healthcall assesses the urgency of all cases. Mr Parrish was waiting to be seen for something in the region of three hours and, on a busy Saturday afternoon, this doesn't strike us as being excessively long," he said.
Chief executive of King Edward VII Hospital, Lin Way said: "We are very sorry to hear that there has been a problem for one of our patients and if a formal complaint is made, we will investigate the matter thoroughly."