I WRITE in response to the letter (Nov 16) regarding the drunks in the A&E department at Fairfield Hospital. We had a similar experience recently.

Our two-year old son was having breathing difficulties, so we decided to take him to the BARDOC walk-in centre in Bury. The doctor was very professional and helpful and we were sent to the A&E department at Fairfield.

There we took our son into the children's playroom. It was absolutely filthy and looked as if it had not been cleaned for a week. After a two-hour wait we were finally taken into a children's cubicle where we were seen by two nurses, a doctor and a trainee doctor and two hours later by a paediatrician. During our four-hour wait we had to listen to a drunk shouting abuse at the staff and swearing. Our son was not the only child in the A&E area that evening.

The most frightening aspect of all this was that it took four hours to see a paediatrician, when the A&E department was not even busy!

I would like to add that all the doctors and nurses were fantastic throughout our son's ordeal and that my comments are not in any way directed at them.

MR P. RATCLIFFE