The crisis at North Middlesex University Hospital has branded a “national scandal” at a public meeting tonight (Monday, July 25).

The meeting, hosted by Edmonton MP Kate Osamor and featuring speakers from politics and healthcare, gave people the opportunity to voice their worries and questions on the future of the hospital’s much criticised A&E department.

According to a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report which labelled the emergency department “inadequate” , 22 serious incidents happened at the hospital’s A&E in the past year, including a failure to take hourly rounds meaning that a patient had lain dead for up to four-and-a-half hours before being found.

Ms Osamor, a former NHS manager, said she would continue to keep track of the situation until September, when the CQC will inspect the hospital again.

She said: “I have had constituents call me crying on the phone, from North Middlesex. People are very angry, and that is why I wanted to have that meeting, to start that conversation.

“This cannot only be a national issue; it is a national scandal. So we will continue to probe and ask questions.

“These bodies, they were talking to each other but not talking to MPs. That has now changed, but we first heard about this through the papers. That is unacceptable.

“There is an over-reliance of the community on A&E. We have got to look at access to your GP. We need to look at the different reasons why people are turning up there, but as a former practice manager, if you cannot get a doctor’s appointment I know where you will end up. We must not just look at the A&E, we must look at why people end up at A&E.”

Among the members of the public who relayed their experiences was a patient who identified themselves only as John, who said while he had got great service at North Mid, the ambulance responses were not good enough.

He said he had called an ambulance after his 92-year-old aunt collapsed, but she had not got to hospital until five and a half hours later.

Former Enfield mayor Cllr Patricia Ekechi, representative of Upper Edmonton, where North Middlesex is located, also spoke from the public floor.

Ms Ekechi, who was born and had three children at North Mid, said: “Each time I am ill, I end up in North Middlesex. Everyone is Enfield is proud of North Middlesex, it hurts me from the bottom of my heart to see the situation at North Mid.

“It is true we have a problem with GPs, I have phoned them several times for an appointment, even on my sick bed, but there is no time for an appointment. How can people who are very ill wait two weeks for an appointment?”

Richard Gourlay, the hospital’s director of strategic development, said they are making improvements, including appointing a new chief executive, clinical director, and bringing in eight senior doctors on loan from other trusts, with five working there already.

He said: “The future is that there is a need for an A&E on the site. It is recognised that 500 patients a day being dispersed; other hospitals could not deal with that.

“All trusts are fishing within a very small pool for staff, we need to sell our hospital as a great place to work. We need to make it as good a place as we possibly can.”