An RAF war veteran was forced to wait for 21 hours in an Oxford casualty department dubbed "worse than a Third World hospital, writes Victoria Owen.

Former airman Donald Bunyan sat in the same chair in a corridor at the John Radcliffe accident and emergency department, while doctors and nurses battled to see a backlog of patients.

The 86-year-old, of Briar Thicket, Woodstock, had a badly infected toe and was referred to casualty because his GP feared the seriousness of his condition could lead to amputation. But Mr Bunyan, who was shot down in Aden, in the Middle East, during the Second World War, relies on a wheelchair because he is crippled with arthritis. He was left in a corridor on Monday afternoon at 1pm and was still there at 10am yesterday.

His daughter, Carol Bunyan, of Hailey, near Witney, said: "The situation there is just utter chaos. It looks like some kind of Third World hospital. You can't go anywhere without people screaming in pain or slouching on the floor. Some patients had been there for 24 hours."

The problem came as GPs were once again alerted that the A&E department was at full capacity. Managers yesterday faxed family doctors across the county not to refer any more patients to the jam-packed department.