Broken hip gran’s 3-hour 999 wait agony
A GREAT-GRANNY aged 79 was left lying on a pavement with a broken hip for three hours as she waited for an ambulance, despite being five minutes from a hospital.
Doris Harrison also fractured her wrist and shattered her hand after falling as she got out of a car outside her daughter’s house.
Daughter Julie, 57, said she rang for an ambulance at about 3.20pm on Tuesday but paramedics did not arrive until 6.20pm.
She said her mother, who has a lung condition, was left on the cold pavement in Liverpool “slipping in and out of consciousness”.
She said: “I rang 999 straight away. They said there was high demand and they’d get an ambulance to us as soon as they could.
“Mum was screaming in pain and slipping in and out of consciousness. Her hand was black and blue from the fall. I kept ringing 999 back and friends and people in the street were doing the same but they kept saying there was a high demand.”
Julie, of Kensington, Liverpool, added: “We couldn’t even lift her to put anything under her because of the pain she was in.
“She was lying on the pavement with blankets over her.
“We are only about five minutes away from the hospital so we would have taken her ourselves but we were told not to move her. “I think it is disgusting.” Mrs Harrison, who has a grandchild and great-grandchild, was eventually taken to Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
She had surgery yesterday but has been told will have to stay in hospital for some time Julie said: “The paramedics couldn’t believe she’d been left there that long.
“I know it’s not their fault but what is our NHS coming to when a near 80-year-old is left lying in the street for three hours?”
Julie said she will be putting in a formal complaint.
A North West Ambulance Service spokesman said: “This wait falls short of the high standards we aim for and we are very sorry for any distress and discomfort caused.
“When we are busy, patients with injuries that are not lifethreatening can wait longer for a response because we have to prioritise.”
He said the call was initially categorised as “not life-threatening” and when it was upgraded to “life-threatening” they attended within half an hour.