HEALTH chiefs have launched an investigation after a Dudley mother's ten-hour appointment delay for her sick baby.

Rachel Price, aged 36, called the NHS 111 service on April 4, to get an appointment at the new Urgent Care Centre at Russells Hall Hospital for her two-month old daughter Lianna, who was suffering from acid reflux.

She called at 11am and was told she'd receive an appointment time from the service provider, Malling Health, within 90 minutes.

After two further phone calls to 111, Miss Price, of Quarry Street, Dudley Wood, was told the walk-in centre was experiencing IT problems.

She said: "I asked if I could have an appointment at the Neptune Health Park in Tipton as I'd been there before when the centre at Holly Hall was open but I was told I couldn't as it was a different health care provider.

"I still hadn't heard anything at 8pm - nine hours after I'd requested an appointment time and when I rang 111 again, the woman on the phone said I should have been told to just turn up.

"I said I didn't want to sit and wait in A&E as I didn't want my daughter picking anything up from other people and then finally someone from the walk-in centre called me back at 9pm with an appointment."

She said she did not want to take her young baby to the hospital at that time on a Saturday night so said she would go the next day.

Although she was seen within an hour, the experience has left her disappointed: "The appointment only lasted ten minutes, there's no way it should take ten hours to sort that out. The Dudley health service is atrocious."

West Midlands Ambulance Service runs 111, a spokesman said: “The call was passed to Malling Health at 11.06am. Given Miss Price’s concerns about the incident, a formal investigation is underway and therefore it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”

A spokesman for Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group said Miss Price could have attended the walk-in centre in Tipton but staff there would not have access to her medical records and they recommend Dudley patients use their own GP or the Dudley Urgent Care Centre.

The spokesman added waiting times at the new centre are less than at the old Holly Hall facility.

Malling Health is looking into the case and unable to comment at this stage.