A Hereford mother has complained that she was left stranded in a Worcester hospital waiting room with her injured child with no means of getting home.

It was the middle of the night and Roxann McGovern, of Newton Farm, said she had no money to pay for a taxi.

"I was told I was welcome to stay the night in the waiting room but I was not prepared for my son, who was already most distressed, to go through that,'' she said.

Her ordeal started when 12 year old Kiyle was playing on a trampoline in a friend's garden last Saturday.

His knee came up on landing, hitting him in the mouth causing injuries.

Kiyle, a pupil at Haywood High, was taken to the accident and emergency department at the County Hospital at 4pm and five hours later his mother was told he would have to go to Worcester Royal Hospital because dental treatment he needed was not available at the County.

No ambulance was free but hospital staff arranged for him to be transferred by taxi, at the expense of the hospital trust.

"I asked how I would get back because I had no money with me and they said that would be arranged at Worcester,'' she said.

At the Worcester hospital Kiyle had treatment, including stitches, for injuries to the roof of his mouth, bone fracture and two teeth pushed back in.

At 1.30am Roxann was told he could go home.

"But there was no way I could get back to Hereford at that time. I had no money but I was not prepared to stay there the rest of the night with Kiyle, whose face was a real mess," she said.

Eventually Roxanne contacted social services through an emergency number and a car was provided to take mother and child back to Hereford.

"I am not happy about it. They should not do such things to children," she said.

Roxann, who had no idea they would go to Worcester when she went to the County with Kiyle, said he was recovering slowly.

A spokesperson at the County said the situation on sending people home from the A&E department was a grey area and was largely at the discretion of the trust.

At Worcester Royal Hospital a spokesman said the trust would have arranged an ambulance if there had been a clinical need.

It had not been necessary for Kiyle to be kept in hospital overnight, but the offer was made for him to stay there until he was ready to travel.

Generally people who attended A&E were expected to make their own way home after treatment. He said the hospital was not in a position to pay for transport home from hospital, it could only be done on clinical grounds.