An eight-month-old baby waited almost eight hours at A&E before leaving with his parents after a doctor was "alarmed" by his abnormal heart rate.

Tree surgeon Ben Shire rushed his son to Watford General Hospital for an out of hours doctors’ appointment after he experienced a temperature of 39 degrees and a heart rate of 185 beats per minute.

After being told at 10.40pm that he needed to be taken to children’s A&E the family, who live in Bushey, expected to be seen quickly.

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Instead, they waited through the night before being told he was no longer sick enough to be seen by A&E.

The 30-year-old said: “They were alarmed by my little boy’s temperature and heart rate.

“But when they sent us down, they just had us waiting there.”

His wife was reportedly told there were more important patients and was left to sit there unseen until eventually giving up at 6.30am.

“Nothing was offered, no drink of water or sandwiches,” he added.

“My wife asked for some milk for the baby, but it never came.

“By four in the morning the heart rate had gone down enough so they just said he’s not poorly enough for us to see him.

“It’s very stressful being told your eight-month-old son needs to be sent down to A&E and then not get seen. It was just terrible.”

The tree surgeon slammed the department as “the worst ever” and said: “It was just chaos to be honest with you, people were walking in and then walking straight out again.”

He added that “something needs to be done”.

When the baby was eventually seen at 9am by Bushey GP practice Attenborough Surgery it was revealed his tonsils were inflamed and he had an infection.

He has been given a course of antibiotics with the hope that he will have improved by Wednesday or Thursday.

Mr Shire said: “My wife hasn’t had a wink of sleep, probably had 30 minutes, then she had to do the school run.”

A trust spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to hear about the family’s experience but we cannot comment due to the patient’s right to confidentiality.

"We would always advise readers to contact our patient advice and liaison service (PALS) to raise concerns."

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