THE WIFE of a Gloucester dad struck down with Legionnaires'

disease is furious because they had to wait more than four

hours for a doctor.

Dad-of-two Richard Salisbury, 42, of Bristol Road, is the

second case of the disease to hit the county within a week.

On Thursday it was revealed that a patient at Cheltenham

General Hospital had Legionnaires'.

Richard's wife Janette said he was vomiting, had diarrhoea

and was losing consciousness as they waited for a doctor to

come to their home.

Eventually she called an ambulance and yesterday they were

told he had the potentially fatal disease.

Last night Richard was receiving treatment at

Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Janette, 43, said: “On Friday Richard developed pains in his

stomach and back and a doctor came and gave him

painkillers.

“But he became worse on Saturday and by Sunday he had severe

diarrhoea and vomiting and crippling pain. He became so weak he

couldn't stand up.

“I called the out-of-hours doctors service on Sunday at

about 5pm and after I described the symptoms they said they

would send a doctor within two hours.”

By 9.30pm there was still no doctor so she called an

ambulance as her mechanic husband drifted in and out of

consciousness.

A doctor finally arrived at their home at about 10.35pm.

The Cheltenham case is not connected to Richard's

diagnosis.

But the family are worried as Legionnaires' is more common

in people whose immune systems are weak such as cancer

patients.

Janette, a part-time shop assistant, has just recovered from

cancer.

Mum to Adam, 17, and Josie, 11, she said: “I feel very angry

with the out-of hours doctors service. They are doing all they

can but the service is not good enough – it's a joke.”

A spokeswoman for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation

Trust confirmed a patient is being treated at GRH with

Legionnaires' disease.

“The patient was admitted to GRH with the disease which was

contracted outside of the hospital,” she said.

Laurence Knight, from the Health Protection Agency, said

they would be working with NHS colleagues and the local

authority to try to establish the cause of the infection in

Gloucester.

He said: “That routinely means going through a patient's

recent travel movements and looking at any risk factors at the

home. There is no evidence of any link between the two

patients.”

Karl Henderson, deputy chief executive of Great Western

Ambulance Service, which dispatches the mobile out of hours,

said: “On the basis of information provided to the service at

5pm, this call was given a target time of six hours for a visit

by a doctor. Unfortunately, the patient deteriorated in the

interim and had to call 999 at 9.26pm. Our ambulance arrived

four minutes.

“We're sorry for the distress experienced. We are

investigating this incident so that any lessons can be

learned.”