YET more people have contacted the Daily Echo with tales of their horrendous experiences of Southamp-ton's NHS.

The city's health service is facing possibly its worst crisis yet with GPs being asked to cancel admissions to Southampton's hospitals "wherever possible".

The situation has got so bad that health bosses have discussed the option of closing the city's only accident and emergency department and asking ambulances to travel to Winchester and Portsmouth with patients.

Many patients have already been affected by the crisis, and last week waiting times locally and nationally were panned following a national watchdog report.

Six-year-old Ria Laird, of Ash Tree Road, Bitterne Park, Southampton, waited more than five hours to be treated at Southampton General Hospital after she fell out of a tree and broke part of her collar bone on June 25.

Ria and her parents had to sit outside on the pavement for the first two hours of their wait because there were not enough chairs in the waiting area.

Dean Weaver, 33, of Gladstone Road, Sholing, Southampton, had to go to the emergency department four times in excruciating pain with swollen fingers before being admitted.

Even when he was finally put on to a ward for treatment, his operation was postponed by a day. Mr Weaver is still waiting for test results to tell him the cause of his pain.

Brian Eldridge, 62, of Romsey Road, Maybush, Southampton, waited more than seven hours in the emergency department after tripping over a rope and ripping a muscle in his arm and cracking several ribs on Sunday, July 1.

Brian Lanham, 37, of Ordnance Way, March-wood, waited more than nine hours in the emergency department after breaking his wrist at the end of June.

These are just some of the cases reported to the Daily Echo over the last week. Peter Campion, public relations manager for Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "The one thing that is missing is a counter- balanced list with the names of all the people having emergency treatment who were being seen while other people had to wait.

"Nobody likes waiting and in an ideal world people wouldn't wait, but we do treat people in a medical priority.

"Accident and emergency is divided into two sides, minor injuries and major injuries. Those on the minor side don't see the huge amount of work going on in the major side."