999 wait of nearly four hours for pensioner, 86
AN ELDERLY woman who fell at her home had to wait nearly four hours for an ambulance – and was then told she would have a further wait of several hours at hospital.
Lillian Pargiter, 86, fell at her home in Lowesmoor Road, Sheldon, on Tuesday evening last week. She suffered a carpet burn and nasty reddening to her arm after blood vessels burst.
Son Robert Taylor phoned West Midlands Ambulance Service at 5.56pm but the ambulance did not arrive until 9.36pm.
When the ambulance finally arrived, she was taken to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham where she spent an hour-and-a-half waiting in A&E.
Robert, 65, said his mum was then told she could face a further sevenhour wait before she would be seen by a doctor.
Robert, a full-time carer for his mother, said: “I totally understand both the ambulance service and Heartlands Hospital have to prioritise.
“But how long my mum had wait was simply unacceptable.
“Don’t get me wrong, when the ambulance finally did arrive the paramedics were absolutely lovely and were very caring.
“But my mum is 86 and shouldn’t have to wait for nearly four hours for an ambulance. Then, when she got to the hospital, she was in A&E for one and a half hours before being told she would face a further sevenhour wait to see a doctor.
“I had a wheelchair in my car and I wheeled her out of there and took her home. I was fuming.”
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman apologised to Lillian, saying the service was “experiencing an extremely high level of demand”.
He said: “The trust would like to apologise to Mrs Pargiter and her family for the time it took to get to her on September 17.
“A call was received at 5.56pm to
to reports of a woman who had fallen in her home, suffering an arm injury. It was triaged as a Category 3 call, urgent but not life-threatening.
“Unfortunately at the time, the service was experiencing an extremely high level of demand. The trust dispatched ambulances on four separate occasions, but each time they were diverted to a higher priority call. In the meantime, a paramedic from the control room called the patient and her son to establish if the patient’s condition had worsened.
“This would have resulted in the call being upgraded to a higher priority. A fifth ambulance was dispatched at 9.28pm and arrived at 9.36pm.
“This is not the sort of care that we would want to provide to any patient, but calls are always prioritised to ensure those in most need receive the fastest response.
“To date, the family have not contacted the trust to discuss the circumstances of this case, but should they wish to, please contact our patient experience team.”
A spokesman for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Heartlands Hospital, said: “Emergency departments across our trust continue to experience an unprecedented increase in demand and, although we are unable to comment on specific cases, all patients are assessed to ensure those who are sickest are seen first.”