THE row over a shortage of beds at the new £97m University Hospital of North Durham intensified this week after a 92-year-old woman had to wait ten hours on a trolley.

Relatives of Winifred Leonard said her treatment at the hospital was a disgrace.

The former school cook was given two pain killers to numb the pain of a suspected broken leg.

Then she was left on a trolley in a side room as staff tried to cope with the steady stream of casualties.

Officials at the hospital - flagship of the Government's policy of using private finance to build new NHS facilities - have promised to investigate.

But the latest revelation will fuel the row over the hospital which, officials now admit, was built with too few beds.

Critics claim the problems faced at North Durham cast a cloud over the whole private finance initiative.

The ordeal for Miss Leonard began on Saturday, May 11, when she arrived at the University Hospital in an ambulance at about 7pm after a fall at her home in Crook, County Durham.

Her niece, Irene Marr, said she was finally been admitted to a ward at 5.30am - more than ten hours after she arrived.

"She had lain on a trolley all that time, her dignity taken away," said Mrs Marr. She said her aunt had been treated as 'a second-class citizen'

Stephen Mason, chief executive of the 640-bed North Durham Health Care Trust, said the accident and emergency department had recently been strengthened and more improvements were planned.

"We will be investigating this case when we receive the letter," he promised.

But David Woodhead, chief officer of North Durham CHC, said: "Unfortunately, waits of ten and 11 hours are still not uncommon at weekends.

"There are simply not enough doctors and nurses and it all comes back to the lack of bed numbers."

Liz Twist, North-East regional head of health for Unison, said: "This is another example of the problems caused by under capacity as a result of the requirement to fit the economic case rather than the need."

North Durham MP Kevan Jones said: "I have to praise the dedicated staff, but they are having to work with this historic problem of lack of beds."

The revelation that Miss Leonard spent more than ten hours on a trolley coincided with the annual Nationwide Casualty Watch carried out by patient watchdogs. Spot checks at 167 accident and emergency units found that the 20 longest waits in the country ranged from between 28 hours to more than 90.

The longest wait was at Aintree NHS Trust, Cheshire, where a 90-year-old woman had gone into A&E suffering from hip pain.

Ninety-five hours later, she was still waiting for transport home.