A dad has been forced to spend hours waiting in A&E every other day for a dressing to be changed- because his GP surgery can’t see him.

At the end of October, Matthew Childs, a plasterer from Maidstone, Kent, was constructing a pond in his garden when he slipped and fell on a piece of rusty metal.

A spike went into the underside of his left arm, penetrating 4cm and only stopping when it hit bone.

Mr Childs’ brother, Ben, took him to Maidstone Hospital’s A&E where he was patched up, but told he would need to have the wound cleaned and the dressing changed every other day to avoid contracting sepsis.

He said: “I was discharged with antibiotics and painkillers with strict instructions that I must go to my GP every other day to have the wound re-dressed and packed.