Enfield MPs said they were “kept in the dark” over the crisis at North Middlesex Hospital in a parliamentary debate today (Tuesday, July 12).

Representatives from across Enfield and Haringey asked questions of health minister Ben Gummer at Westminster, with the minister saying he “regrets” the lack of openness and promised work was being done to help North Mid and stop problems happening again in the future.

Joan Ryan, MP for Enfield North, said they were not made aware of the extent of the crisis at the hospital until the beginning of June when the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report came out, almost two full months after the initial inspection.

She said: “The terrible situation at North Middlesex appears to have been an open secret in health circles for some time. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that we were kept in the dark.

“Nobody who was accountable to the public at local level was informed. No news is definitely not good news.”

Things got so bad at North Mid earlier this year that on one occasion patients were told over loud speaker to go home unless they had “life-threatening” injuries.

Ms Ryan said: “I know we have self-service checkouts at supermarkets, but we should not have self-service A&E

“The major experience of patients at North Mid is to wait, and to wait.

In her speech Ms Ryan blamed the pressures on North Mid – whose A&E sees around 500 patients per day – on the closure of Chase Farm A&E in 2013. North Mid has had a 25 per cent increase in numbers of A&E patients as a result

She said: “Many A&Es would bend if not break under this stress. We would have thought the government would have been bending over backwards to help us, but no.

“Chase Farm has been left as a cottage hospital, North Mid cannot be allowed to become the same.”

According to the CQC report, 22 serious incidents happened at the hospital’s A&E in the past year, including a failure to take hourly rounds meaning that a patient had lain dead for up to four-and-a-half hours before being found

Other issues included only one toilet being available for more than 100 patients at one stage.

At one point the hospital had only seven out of 15 emergency consultants in place, leaving junior doctors to take responsibilities for which they are not qualified. The hospital has now taken doctors on loan, but this was described by Ms Ryan as a “sticking plaster” solution.

The CQC report also said staff do not feel confident raising concerns as they have not been properly dealt with in the past, with Ms Ryan saying she believes there is a “culture of bullying”.

North Middlesex chief executive Julie Lowe is currently on leave, with Libby McManus of the Royal Free London NHS replacing her on an interim basis.

At the debate, Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes said: “The staff at the hospital are people we know locally, they are just as concerned as anyone else.

“The situation is shocking and deplorable, why did it take this long for crisis management to take place? The staff I speak to are ashamed, they tell me, why is more not being done?”

Mr Burrowes spoke of his own experience at North Mid A&E, where he spent 11 hours in North Mid A&E with a burst appendix. He said his mother had to complain to staff in order to get him seen.

Health minister Ben Gummer said he had called for a full review into the failings at North Mid.

He said: “I am not going to be able to bring a complete answer at this, but we are going to look in detail as to why standards slipped so suddenly.

“It is a matter of regret that members were not informed of problems at the pace and time they should have been.

“We will make sure we learn from this scenario and make sure this does not happen again.”