The Patients Association has joined the growing criticism of Mid Yorkshire hospitals NHS Trust, who mooted the idea of calling in the Army to cover the accident and emergency department at Pontefract Hospital due to a shortfall of suitable doctors.
The lack of medical staff, particularly mid-ranking doctors, has led to the hospital's A&E department being closed overnight since 1 November.
Speaking to the Huffington Post UK, Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, questioned the Trust's handling of the situation.
"It is worrying that this situations has arisen at all, she said. This crisis started in November. Why have the Trust not taken action to recruit new staff in the meantime?
"Why have they got the desperate stage of having to draft in the army? Introducing Army medics as a stop gap may be a good temporary solution while the hospital gets its act together, so long as their introduction does not compromise patient care."
Though there has been no formal request from the Trust to the Ministry of Defence, the suggestion has been much criticised by the local council, MPs and Patients Care associations.
The Trust informed a bemused local council of their approach to the Army on Thursday, with Wakefield Councilor Betty Rhodes of the local social care and health scrutiny committee, saying she was "surprised" to hear of the Trust's proposed solution.
"We found out that in order to look to reduce the gap, the trust had approached the Army to bring some medical staff in and they told us they haven't had a reply," she said. "I actually asked them to reiterate the word in terms of the Army coming in."
In a statement, the Leader of Wakefield Council expressed grave concerns over the financial management and future of the Mid-Yorkshire NHS Trust which runs Pontefract and Pinderfields hospitals.
Councillor Peter Box CBE said the trust management was "not fit for purpose", adding that he had received several reports of financial mismanagement.
"We are getting report after report about what can only be described as mismanagement of huge amounts of public money," said Box.
"There are some fundamental questions to answer and, on behalf of the public of this district, we cannot allow it to go any further. I will be making strong representations to the Department of Health.
"The senior members of the management team clearly need to consider their position with a view to changes being made as quickly as possible."
Shadow home secretary and MP for Pontefract and Castleford Yvette Cooper has added her voice to the debate, calling the lack of doctors for local services was "worrying".
More than 12,000 people have signed a petition to have the department reopened, said Cooper, "so clearly, action which brings additional doctors into Pontefract to re-open services is important and welcome.
"Mid Yorkshire Trust have been advised by outside experts to seek help from the Army Medical Service as Mid Staffordshire has done in order to keep their A&E services open 24 hours.
In October, military doctors were drafted in to help Stafford's crisis-hit A&E department to help beef up its staffing, which was suffering from a shortage.
"Everyone recognises the priority for the Army Medical Service must be the lives and the health of our soldiers and army personnel and this is clearly not a long-term solution," said Cooper, advising the Trust to pursue other avenues to get more doctors in place.
"It is deeply worrying that two hospitals have now had to seek help from the army because of the shortage of doctors and the government needs to explain urgently why they have allowed it to come to this and what action ministers will take to deliver the doctors we need," she said.
Labour MP Jon Trickett has also criticised the Trust, telling BBC Radio Leeds that the management had not been "the best possible".
"I am sick of words," he said. "I want to see deeds now. The answer is for the management of the trust to get a grip and recruit the necessary staff."
In a statement, Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's GPs Committee, said the hospital calling for help from Army doctors was "very, very unusual".
"We need to ask why doctors are not seeking to work at Pontefract Hospital or responding to the recruitment drive they have initiated," he said.
"There simply aren't that many Army-trained doctors sitting twiddling their thumbs," he added.
The shortage of medical staff has been blamed on the European Working Time Directive, which caps the number of hours doctors can work to 48 a week. Opponents of the directive argue that this limits the amount of experience junior doctors can gain, slowly the rate at which they filter through to A&E departments.
An MoD spokesman said: "There is a well established process by which other government departments can seek emergency assistance from the MoD. To date, no such request has been received by the MoD from the Department of Health."
The Mid Yorkshire hospitals NHS Trust has been approached for comment.