THE valuable time of hospital doctors is being wasted by patients rushing into hospital casualty - with toothache, according to a medical chief.

In one recent weekend 16 people turned up at Royal Blackburn Hospital's A&E complaining of dental problems.

And other minor "injuries" seen there and at Burnley General Hospital included young women who had suffered blisters after wearing high heels and people with coughs and colds, ingrowing toenails, minor cuts and back pains.

Anne Asher, divisional director of medicine at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said such trivial complaints were forcing up waiting times for A&E patients in serious pain.

People should use GPs, health centres and other community services for such issues, she said.

And while one health watchdog chief said a shortage of dentists was contributing to the problem, another called for people not to be so "soft" and a third said some A&E visits were "astounding".

Mrs Asher said trivial cases could "divert resources away from genuine emergencies and mean that for a small number of patients we may continue to struggle to meet our maximum four hour target".

She said: "If patients arrive at A&E with toothache we tell them to take paracetamol; they say Well, we don't have any paracetamol in the house'.

"Similarly, we regularly have patients attending A&E with coughs and colds, the symptoms of which could again be easily treated with over the counter medicines."

Derek Holmes, chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum for East Lanc-ashire NHS Primary Care Trust, said: "With political correctness, the compensation culture and massive health and safety restrictions, the population has got softer."

Between 2000 and 2006 the number of individual visits to East Lancashire's A&E departments has risen from 118,138 to 138,690 a year.