A man spent more than 14 hours in hospital over three days before staff were able to remove a splinter from his hand.

Ronald Seamer, a steel fabricator of Redvers Road, Brighton, was lifting a scaffolding plank on a construction site in Redhill, Surrey, when a large splinter became embedded in his palm.

His boss and another colleague picked out most of the wood with tweezers but his hand later became swollen and painful.

At 8am on Monday, Mr Seamer, 58, went to the accident and emergency department (A&E) at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, in the hope of catching the staff at a quiet time.

He did not eat in case he needed a general anaesthetic but after hours waiting for an appointment was told he needed an ultrasound to identify where the remaining fragments were.

He said: "I started to get fed up so I told them I would go home and come back when they could fit me in.

"They told me to wait because they might have a slot for me."

But at 4pm Mr Seamer was told staff were still trying to find someone to operate the equipment.

He was given antibiotics and painkillers and told to return the following day.

When he came back, this time at 8.30am, he found himself waiting in vain until 2.30pm, again without any food. There was still no one to operate the ultrasound.

He returned at 3pm on Wednesday, when he received an appointment and treatment under local anaesthetic.

Mr Seamer said: "I'm angry and frustrated. I wasn't able to go to work and my boss is going to think I was swinging the lead because it was just a splinter in my hand.

"My wife couldn't believe it when I called her and told her I was still waiting to be seen in A&E. And that was on Monday afternoon.

"I could have been in and out of there if they had had someone to do the ultrasound. I know people go on holiday and have time off but surely they could have found someone."

A spokesman for the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The trust regrets Mr Seamer had an unacceptable wait.

"The delay was caused by a combination of factors including a shortage of radiologists, compounded by sickness."