Emergency service failure

EVA MASON hit her face badly on the pavement when she tripped over a pothole in Grimsby town centre. She is 90 and although she was helped by those who witnessed the accident, who stayed with her, it took an incredible two hours for an ambulance to arrive.

A spokesperson for the East Midlands Ambulance Service talked about the service being “under severe pressure” but it also sounds as though the incident was not deemed to be an “emergency”. This is extraordinary. When a person of 90 has a fall and is in shock and, initially, unable to see, it is an emergency. Any medical event involving someone of this age is almost, by definition, an emergency.

Eva Mason was not in the middle of nowhere – she was in a town centre – but left without help. In this day and age that seems unbelievable.