Dear Sir,

Please allow me a small space in your newspaper. I had the misfortune to take my almost 85-year-old husband to the emergency room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital at 9am on July 5.

He was in an enormous amount of pain. Thinking we would be there for a couple of hours, it ended up being a 9½-hour ordeal.

It was five hours before he was offered a bed — only because I complained. However, I was told there is preferential treatment as patients came to the hospital. I looked around the waiting room and I don’t believe there was anyone half my husband’s age.

So, after getting the bed, we waited 45 minutes before the doctor came to see my husband — he spent perhaps four minutes with him.

Then we waited another 45 minutes to be told he was going to have an X-ray, which took all of seven minutes.

This poor man tried using the bathroom 11 times over the course of 6½ hours. He sat in the most uncomfortable chair in the emergency room, falling asleep till he almost broke his neck.

I was very disappointed at the treatment he was given, taking his age into account.

It is only the second time he has used the services at the KEMH emergency department. I hope it will be a long time before we need to attend again.

YVONNE MONIZ

Southampton