Family ‘disgusted’ by 14-hour wait for an ambulance
SUFFERER IS LEFT STUCK DOWN THE SIDE OF TOILET
FAMILY members of a dementia sufferer who was left stuck on her bathroom floor for more than 14 hours have received an apology from West Midlands Ambulance Service.
The 97-year-old care home patient fell at the home at 2pm on Monday, November 8, and was left waiting beside her loo on the bathroom floor until paramedics eventually arrived at her home at 4.29am on Tuesday, November 9.
Her family branded the wait “disgusting” and West Midlands Ambulance Service has now apologised for the lengthy delay, reports Birminghamlive.
The apology comes after it was revealed West Midlands Ambulance Service was moving to its highest ever warning level in its history. West Midlands crews cover Burton and Uttoxeter.
Queues outside some hospitals have reached record levels as delays worsen across the West Midlands.
The move to an unprecedented “level 25” rating (out of 25) means the service expects patients to suffer “catastrophic consequences” with repeated serious harm or death “almost certain”.
SERVICE APOLOGISES AFTER 97-YEAR-OLD DEMENTIA
A family member of the pensioner’s family said: “It’s terrible, I think it’s disgusting, it’s just not acceptable.
“At 2pm she had a fall in her care home and they rang for an ambulance. She fell down the side of the toilet and wedged herself in a very peculiar position.
“At 6pm there was still no ambulance, or at 10.30pm. The care home staff put a pillow under her head but they couldn’t do anything else.
“At 4.30am the ambulance came, 14.5 hours later. She was on a cold floor, she’s 97 years old. She was in a lot of pain, couldn’t move at all. She’s got dementia so she really is very, very vulnerable.
“It’s not acceptable, something should be done about this, it’s terrible. I’m absolutely furious.
“At the end of the day she’s a human being and you don’t treat human beings like this. It’s just cruel.”
A spokeswoman for West Midlands
Ambulance Service said: “The trust would like to apologise for taking over 14 hours to respond to a patient in Stourbridge on Monday. We received a call at 2pm to respond to a patient that had fallen.
“Staff in our control room spoke with the caller to reassess the patient’s condition, explaining that an ambulance would respond to the property when one became available, but due to the delays being experienced at hospital, it took us longer than we would want to get to this lady.
“An ambulance crew arrived at 4.29am on Tuesday, and assessed the patient before conveying her to hospital for further treatment.
“The whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure; hospital handover delays unfortunately mean patients waiting longer for an ambulance response, for which we are very sorry.
“We are working with all local NHS partners to reduce delays so crews can respond to the next incident as quickly as possible.
“Our staff and volunteers are working tirelessly to reach patients as quickly as possible, but we accept that on too many occasions, this is not as quickly as we would want and certainly not as quickly as patients and their loved ones would want.”