TWO elderly residents at a Bournemouth rest home waited 15-and-a-half hours to see a doctor - the day after a new emergency out-of-hours medical service was launched in Dorset.

Frail 82-year-old Pat Puckett and 79-year-old John Hamblen were suffering from chest infections when concerned staff at the White Lodge home in Boscombe Spa Road called for help on October 2.

Just hours earlier, Dorset Ambulance NHS Trust launched a new out-of-hours service for patients when GP surgeries are closed.

White Lodge proprietor Karen Watt, a registered nurse, said: "Our senior carer rang the out-of-hours phone number at 9am and waited in a queuing system for about 45 minutes.

"Two doctors called back later to say they would be coming out to visit Pat and John. We suggested that one could see both.

"When I came on duty at 2pm there was still no sign of a doctor and I rang the number. I was told they were very busy but assured a doctor would arrive.

"When I left at 8pm Pat and John were still waiting. Two doctors walked in at 12.30am. They left prescriptions for antibiotics but we couldn't get the drugs until the next morning.

"When I took them to the pharmacist Pat's prescription was OK but the doctor hadn't dated John's or stated the dosage.

"It took another three hours for the pharmacist to sort it out so John didn't get his medication until 28 hours after our initial call.

"He was more ill than Pat and is now in hospital having oxygen therapy. If he had received his antibiotics earlier it could have helped his condition.

"Before the new service was launched we sometimes had to wait six or seven hours for a doctor.

"We were hoping the new service would be an improvement and now dread any other residents becoming ill at weekends."

Dorset Ambulance press officer Steve Smith said: "There were delays on the first weekend of the service mainly due to the sheer volume of calls and teething problems with the new equipment.

"A lot of the problems have now been sorted out or are being addressed. Waiting 15-and-a-half hours for a doctor is not acceptable."

First published: October 16

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