The Temora woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital at 9am and by 7.30pm that night she still hadn’t been seen by a doctor or given a bed.

That’s when her family gave up and took her home.

Now, Terry Coombes and his partner Donna Harvey are speaking out about their concerns surrounding the treatment of his mother and other elderly patients that day.

“You may as well go to your local vet,” was Donna’s assessment.

Noting the staff did an amazing job, Donna said it seemed like resources were stretched beyond breaking point.

Currently, Wagga’s hospital has 237 beds.

This services a catchment area of about 280,000 people.

The $282 million hospital redevelopment will only see the number of beds raised to 294.

The incident of concern began on Friday, April 12, when paramedics took Terry’s mother, Marjorie, to hospital at 9am.

Donna went in the ambulance with her and when they arrived they were told no beds were available.

“She was wheeled out to the waiting room and had her meds hooked up,” Donna explained.

“We waited until about 11.30am before I went to the front desk and asked when her turn was.

“There were about five wheelchairs with other elderly and sick people there with her.

“What I’m concerned about is that anyone elderly was stuck in the corner to fend for themselves.”

During the day Donna said no one came to offer the elderly people food, water or help getting to the toilet.

She also noted people with injuries like broken noses were shuffled in and out of the hospital during the day.

At 3.30pm Terry took over sitting with his mother and by 7pm they still hadn’t moved or seen a doctor.

Half-an-hour later they made the call to give up.

Marjorie was taken home and booked in to see her Temora GP first thing in the morning.

There, she was given tests, X-rays and looked over.

She’s now on the mend, but the whole experience disturbed the family.

Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) director of operations Jill Ludford acknowledged demand on the hospital had risen considerably.

By the end of March, Wagga Base’s emergency department saw 1293 extra patients compared to the same time last year.

Of these patients, Ms Ludford said 802 needed admissions to a hospital ward.

That’s an increase of 12.4 per cent on 2012.

“Wagga Base is seeing a growing number of patients with more acute conditions, including trauma and complex illnesses which need admission to hospital,” Ms Ludford said.

“All patients arriving at the emergency department are triaged according to the urgency of their condition, with patients with the higher urgency treated first.

“The hospital advises all patients who present to the emergency department to wait to be seen by a doctor before making a decision to return home.

“The patient was discharged into the care of a family member with instructions for follow-up care.”