PATIENTS are wasting doctors' time at the new GP out-of-hours service at Kidderminster Hospital by walking in with complaints as minor as a cold and cold sores, a health chief has warned.

It was a "regular" problem for hospital staff to see residents with the kind of ailments that could be treated with paracetamol or through a trip to the chemist, said Sara Lewis, general manager of the Worcestershire GP out-of-hours service.

The hospital's out-of-hours service replaced the usual Saturday morning GP surgeries from last December. It also runs overnight in the week and all weekend.

The service, however, was suffering from increased waiting times because people were attending with minor problems, she said.

"We had two men in their 30s turn up. One had a cold sore and one had a sore throat. Both of them could have gone to a chemist but they had to sit down and then be seen. People with a more urgent medical complaint had to wait."

She added: "That is a regular kind of thing, people coming in for a cold remedy. You ask them if they have taken any paracetamol or pain relief and they haven't even thought about it."

A phone call to the out-of-hours service or the national NHS direct would give many people sufficient advice and cut back the 20 per cent of people who should not have visited the hospital, she said.

"The people who turn up without ringing are those with the most minor problems because they are mobile and up and about so they come down as a matter of convenience."

Her comments came after a Kidderminster mum slammed the service in the Shuttle/Times and News last month. Katherine Jezukiewicz, 45, said she waited three-and-a-half hours for her eight-year-old son, Raphael, to be seen for a coughing problem.

She claimed the Saturday morning wait for her and other patients was like TV images of overcrowded emergency aid centres in the Third World.

The out-of-hours office can be contacted on 0845 6090669 and NHS direct is on 0845 4647.