A MOTHER stormed out of Fairfield's Accident and Emergency department with her sick daughter after waiting 20 minutes without seeing ONE member of staff.

Instead, a worried Mrs Janine Smith took three-year-old Daniella to Doctors On Call in Bury town centre. She was suspected of having appendicitis.

Now officials of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have launched an inquiry into why the hospital's emergency department was apparently left unmanned for so long.

Mrs Smith, from Jericho, told the Bury Times this week: "I am only thankful that my daughter was not choking, bleeding heavily or had been involved in any other serious accident that morning. She would not have stood a chance."

Mrs Smith, a police officer, explained: "Upon arrival, I pressed the buzzer at the reception desk and waited. I continued to press the buzzer for a further 15 minutes, during which time not one member of staff was visible. I walked in to the triage room to find that it was also empty."

She said that while she was frantically trying to find a member of staff, another family with a sick baby walked in to the department.

"After searching desperately for a member of staff in A&E, they attempted to locate someone in the main entrance area of the hospital. They too failed to find any staff on duty."

Mrs Smith (30) added: "After enduring a 20-minute wait with a crying three-year-old who was in obvious pain and discomfort, we left the hospital to seek help elsewhere."

Mrs Smith and her husband, Jason, drove Daniella to the Bury and Rochdale Doctors On Call (BARDOC) centre. Fortunately Daniella's condition improved and the couple did not need to see a doctor.

Now the mother-of-two is demanding an explanation from health bosses as to why there were no staff on duty in A&E on the morning of July 27, between 7.25am and 7.45am.

"Having never needed to use the services of A&E before, I had no preconceptions about its quality. However, I was disgusted to discover that this emergency department, serving the whole of Bury, could be completely unmanned for such a length of time. This could have been a tragic situation."

A spokesman for the Pennine Acute Hospital NHS Trust, which is responsible for Fairfield General, said: "All the four accident and emergency departments in the trust runs a 24-hour service. This case will be fully investigated by the Trust and a response will be sent to the complainant."