A PATIENT died after being forced to wait an “unacceptable” amount of time to be seen at a hospital’s casualty department.

The person died in the Accident and Emergency department at North Middlesex Hospital, in Wilbury Way, Enfield, in December, despite being regularly observed and checked on by hospital staff.

The hospital said an investigation has now been launched into what happened.

The failings were highlighted in a report produced by Haringey CCG, which has been leaked to the Enfield Independent.

It said the hospital has also consistently missed its targets of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours of them arriving in casualty at the end of 2015.

There have also been serious failings in patient care, staff training and dealing with complaints about the accident and emergency department, it added.

The report blamed the fact that there is no full-time clinical director or senior leadership and criticised the hospital for not being able to manage incoming ambulances.

The long waiting times were blamed on the fact that consultant posts have not been filled and the “unprofessional” behaviour of staff.

A whistle-blower, who is a senior healthcare figure, said there have been concerns about the hospital for some time.

They said: “There have been waiting times issues, concerns about the standard of clinical quality, and of the decision making of some of the nursing staff.

“There was a phone conference held about this a couple of weeks ago, and it was decided a risk summit needed to be called.”

Meanwhile, by last November, only 57 per cent of complaints about the accident and emergency department were answered within the NHS’s deadline of 30 days.

Not only does this fall well short of the NHS target, which says that 80 per cent of complaints should be responded to within 30 days, it was also the first month that year when more than half of responses issued were done on time.

A total of 77 per cent of patients said they would recommend the hospital – a figure which falls below the NHS’s expected levels and is the worst in London.

The outpatients department was also the least popular in the capital with an 81 per cent of people recommending it, and the maternity department was second lowest rated in the city.

Enfield Council, Haringey Council, Enfield and Haringey CCG, NHS England and Monitor are all stepping in to discuss the future of the hospital.

North Middlesex apologised to patients who have had to wait for a long time, and admitted patient satisfaction levels were “not at the level we would wish for”.

A spokesperson for the hospital said: “Patient safety is always our number one priority and so we are working hard to address the challenges we currently face in our A&E department.

“We have been open and honest about any issues and have been working closely with other NHS organisations, local partners and patient representatives to make significant improvements since concerns were first identified.

“Through next week’s meeting and our ongoing work with our partners, we want to reassure patients that we are determined to drive forward progress so we can continue to provide safe, high quality services and pinpoint any areas where we need to make improvements.”

North Middlesex University Hospital received a “Requires Improvement” rating from government inspector Care Quality Commission (CQC) on its last inspection in August 2014.