CASUALTY patients in York face only a few hours wait compared with delays of up to four days nationally, a report has found.

A spot check "casualty watch" found huge disparities in accident and emergency waiting times around the country.

The Association of Community Health Councils discovered some patients waiting in casualty wards for between 28 and 90 hours during checks of 167 units nationwide.

But York health watchdogs found patients waiting a maximum of four hours during their investigation.

York Community Health Council chairperson Polly Griffith said she was "happy" with the snapshot research results.

She said: "The results for York District Hospital were very good.

"Nothing indicates that this is a one- off, although accident and emergency units do tend to ebb and flow."

The second longest wait was found to be two hours as the patient waited to be picked up by family members.

Health council members went to their local units at 4.30pm on Monday, May 20, to discover how long people had been waiting for treatment and whether they were in beds, trolleys or chairs.

They found the 20 longest waits in the country ranged from between 28 hours to more than 90. The longest wait claimed was at Aintree NHS Trust where a 90-year-old woman had gone into casualty suffering from hip pain after a fall.

It was said that 95 hours later she was still in a unit bed waiting for transport to be taken home.

However, a statement from the Aintree Hospitals NHS Trust said the figures were inaccurate.

Updated: 11:14 Tuesday, May 28, 2002