by Caroline Radford.

A mother whose 15-week-old son is in hospital recovering from the killer bug meningitis says the emergency doctor refused to come to her home when her baby fell ill.

Ann Thomas, of Geldof Road, Huntington, who spent ten days in hospital with meningitis two years ago, suspected the worst when her son's temperature rocketed to 104 degrees on Sunday.

"I did everything I could to bring Kavanagh's temperature down, but by teatime he hadn't taken any of his feeds and his body was stiff with pain,"she said.

"I knew something was seriously wrong and I suspected it was meningitis so I phoned the emergency doctor."

Ann wanted one of the North Yorkshire Emergency Doctors to come out immediately to help her baby, but says she was told to take him in to see a doctor at the Emergency Doctors' base at the Monkgate Health Centre instead.

"I didn't want to waste any more time because I knew Kavanagh was ill, so I took him straight into the casualty department at the hospital, where he was admitted and seen by a paediatric doctor in 20 minutes," said Ann.

"In the early hours of Monday morning he had a lumbar puncture and blood tests and we found out yesterday he has the viral form of the disease.

"Meningitis is every parent's nightmare and I think most parents are aware of the symptoms and expect doctors to take them seriously.

"Kavanagh was very ill - what if he had died because the doctor wouldn't make a house call?

"I am very unhappy at the way what I've been treated and feel something has to be done."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Emergency Doctors said today theywere investigating the case 'making a full response once all the facts had been established'

Malcolm Palmer, chief officer of York Community Health Council, said Mrs Thomas was entitled to an explanation of what happened.

"If there is no satisfactory explanation then something else needs to be done in the way of redress," he said.

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