A BROMSGROVE diabetic ended up in hospital for three days after calling 999 when he lost confidence in the GP out-of-hours service.

Now Brian Phillips, who has called the out-of-hours service 43 times since October because of a stomach illness, has had a meeting with health chiefs to discuss his case. "It is anything but a GP service. You speak to a call assistant and then a nurse calls you back and if you are lucky you may eventually talk to a doctor," said the 54-year-old, who lives on his own in Friarscroft and is an insulin dependent diabetic.

Brian claims that it has taken up to 11 minutes to even get a call answered and one-and-a-half-hours to speak to a doctor.

"Before Christmas I was in so much pain that I made an emergency 999 call. When the paramedics arrived they took one look and took me by ambulance in my pyjamas to hospital, where I spent three days on a drip. If I had called the service I would probably have been given the stock advice - to take a couple of Paracetamol and see my doctor in the morning."

Brian has a hiatus hernia and has undergone other tests, including a biopsy. He is waiting for the results when he sees his consultant.

Neil Bucktin, director of primary care for Bromsgrove and Redditch, has visited Brian to talk about his treatment. "I cannot comment on individual cases because of patient confidentiality. But we are keen to know what our patients think and how we can improve the service," he said.

"Individual complaints are looked into and all I can say is that we do not believe that any cases have been dealt with inappropriately."

Bromsgrove MP Julie Kirkbride says she is concerned by the out-of-hours cover Brian says he is receiving.