PATIENTS were shocked to discover there was a 41 hour wait to see a doctor in the accident and emergency department of Warrington Hospital yesterday.

They read the information on a live feed on the hospital's website which informs patients of waiting times at A&E and urgent care centres.

One Runcorn mum said: "I couldn't believe it. I know A&E can be busy, but that's almost two days!"

This morning, the website notice said waiting times had soared to 58 hours.

Hospital chiefs blamed an IT glitch and said no-one waited that long.

A spokesman for Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "It was a an IT issue, a glitch on the system. It hadn't re-set itself.

"We were busy over the weekend but no patients were waiting to be seen excessively long times.

"The longest wait for a bed was 12 hours but that patient had already been seen by a doctor. The normal waiting times at weekends is between eight and 12 hours.

Chris Evans, chief operating officer at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The trust has a live waiting time feed on their website, which due to an IT issue did not refresh itself on Sunday and Monday morning, so at one point it was showing that the waiting times to see a doctor was 41 hours rising to 58 hours this morning. Once we were alerted to this error it was corrected.

“At Warrington Hospital’s emergency department on Sunday 17th June, we had 201 attendances of which 91.04 per cent were seen and treated within the 4 hour target; none of our patients had excessively long waits.”

"We encourage people to check the live feed on our website as it shows waiting times for A&E and urgent care centres."