PATIENTS at hospitals in and around Southampton have hit out at the long waiting times that they have experienced.

When barely-conscious Ben Larner arrived at Southampton General Hospital with a gaping wound on his head, his mother assumed he would be treated within minutes.

Instead 11-year-old Ben, who was bleeding heavily, waited six hours before he was seen.

This is the latest disturbing story to be reported to the Daily Echo after we told how the NHS crisis in Hampshire had got so bad that doctors were being asked to stop admitting patients to the county's hospitals and health bosses considered closing Southampton's only accident and emergency department.

Ben's mother Mandy said: "To be honest the staff were excellent - obviously working under a great deal of pressure, but I think for children particularly and the elderly it's unacceptable waiting times."

Another patient, Nicholas Wyatt, waited 12 hours for treatment - and then had to pay a £25 car parking fee.

Mr Wyatt, 19, of Chilworth Road, Chilworth, went to the emergency department after falling off his skateboard last month.

He said: "We must have got there at about 3.30pm. I waited first of all for three hours and then we came home because it was such a long wait.

"We went back the same day at 8.30pm and then we were there until 1.30am the next day until we were seen and then we had to wait around to be seen again and keep getting X-rays done and came home at 4pm. We came back at 8am the next morning and then we had to wait until 2pm to get a bed."

Mr Wyatt, who suffered a fractured elbow and a deep gash on his arm, was finally discharged the following day at 10.15am.

He said: "It wasn't really the nurses' fault - they were so busy. There was one dealing with all the people, one on the desk and there was only one doctor on at the time."

Pensioner Morris Trollope, 83, was left in the emergency department for seven hours before being treated for a cut on his head after a fall at his home in Anchorage Way, Lymington.

He then waited another four hours for an ambulance to take him home.

But Mr Trollope's son, Godfrey, said he should never have been discharged. He got home and he fell over again. My mum had to phone the doctor who admitted him to Lymington Hospital. He got a chest infection and pneumonia and they said he had had a stroke. "Four days later they said they had done all they could medically-wise for him. He passed away two days later."

Mr Trollope said the staff at Lymington Hospital were excellent, but he was not happy with the treatment at Southampton General Hospital.

He said: "He wasn't cared for properly there. It should never have taken that amount of time to see him. There's no way he should sit from 10.30pm to 5.30am to be seen, that's appalling."

Nine-year-old Laura Walker waited with her mother, Jackie, for more than six hours at the emergency department before they gave up and went home.

Laura, who has special needs and behavioural problems, had a bad cut by her eyebrow after falling off her bike.

Mrs Walker, of Chalice Court, Hedge End, is a nurse herself and could have stitched the cut at home, but decided to take Laura to the hospital to be extra careful.

They were seen almost immediately on arrival at the hospital, just after 5pm, and were told Laura would need a glue stitch, and possibly a general anaesthetic, so she was not to eat or drink anything.

Mrs Walker, 38, said: "She hadn't had anything to eat since midday at school and at about 9pm she was going to sleep in front of me because she was dehydrated."

She was told Laura could have something to eat, but they still had a two to three hour wait for her treatment.

At 11pm Mrs Walker was told they would have to wait until 6am, so she took Laura home to do the stitches herself.

She said: "I work for Moorgreen Hospital and I know how short-staffed we are there. I know what it's like, but it gets to the point where I think it's disgusting."

A spokeswoman for Southamp-ton General Hospital said: "We try and minimise the waits wherever we possibly can.

"We do have a triage system all the time which means that we assess people on their clinical needs. We do try to get very young and old people through quickly."