An 81-year-old grandmother waited over 14 hours for an ambulance after suffering a fall in a bathtub.
Barbara Crafter, of the city of Newport, Gwent, was home alone when she fell one evening. Neighbours could hear her groaning in pain and phoned her family.
Daughter Lesley Morgan said when she phoned 999 at 7pm, she was told there would be a seven-hour delay to sending an ambulance – but they ended up waiting double that time.
She said: ‘It was a terrible ordeal. My mum has a serious heart condition and uses a pacemaker. The stress was not good for her health. I couldn’t move her at first and my mum was crying in agony.’
Ms Morgan managed to move her 81-year-old mother from the bath to the toilet, ‘where she was more comfortable’ – but when they were still there at 1am, six hours after first calling paramedics, the worried daughter rung again.
Things only got worse at that point, she said: ‘I was told it would be treated as a new call and that my mum would be put at the back of the queue.’
Paramedics did not end up arriving until 10am the next day – and the grandmother then had to wait even longer once she got to hospital before eventually being seen by a doctor.
Her daughter Ms Morgan said: ‘The system is broken. If you ring 999, you don’t get an emergency response. I’ve had to watch my mum be in pain all night.
Barbara Crafter (pictured), of the city of Newport, Gwent, was home alone when she fell one evening. Neighbours could hear her groaning in pain and phoned her family
Daughter Lesley Morgan said when she phoned 999 at 7pm, she was told there would be a seven-hour delay to sending an ambulance – but they ended up waiting double that time. Pictured: File photo
‘If you’re a priority patient, you should be getting seen quicker.’
She added: ‘By the time she was taken to the hospital none of us had any sleep.’
Executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, Liam Williams, said: ‘I would like to extend my sincere apologies to Mrs Crafter for what would have been a distressing wait for an ambulance.
‘This is not the standard of service we aspire to deliver, and we recognise that this is not what people expect of us.
‘We will be reaching out to Mrs Crafter and her family to better understand their experience and investigate what happened.’
The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was treated as a ‘new call’ as the family had originally cancelled the ambulance and then rang back again to suggest they needed assistance.
