A frail and elderly mother was left screaming in pain as she waited 10 hours for an ambulance as the appalling wait times for emergency care continue to be laid bare.
Stuart Donald was alerted by his mother’s care provider at North Lincolnshire Council that she had pushed the emergency button on her lifeline alarm that she wears around her neck after being unable to get out of bed.
The care provider contacted Mr Donald at 7am that morning, who told carers his ‘frail’ mother required an ambulance.
He dialled 111, who told him his mother required emergency care. Two hours later, Mr Donald was contacted by the East Midlands Ambulance service who promised to send an ambulance ‘within six hours’.
His elderly mother’s realised she couldn’t put any pressure on her legs without experiencing severe pain, but without the prospect of any medical assistance arriving her son drove 20 miles to go and help her.
Arriving at her Scunthorpe home, Mr Donald called for a family member to help him move his mother, but they failed so he again called for an ambulance six hours later.
‘I said: “My mother is sat in absolute agony and we physically can’t move her, we need help – you must have capacity”, and he said, “No, not at the moment, but as soon as someone becomes available we’ll send someone”.
After upgrading the incident to a ‘Category Two’ response six hours later, medics should have arrived at the property within 18 minutes.
Despite this, it took the ambulance service 10 hours to finally arrive. They have since apologised for the incident and explained they must ‘prioritise the sickest and most severely injured patients first’.
Mr Donald slammed the service for ‘failing to protect the public’ after his mother’s ordeal.
Stuart Donald was alerted by his mother’s care provider at North Lincolnshire Council that she had pushed the emergency button on her lifeline alarm that she wears around her neck after being unable to get out of bed
After first realising she was unable to get out of bed without screaming in pain, Mr Donald’s mother pushed her alarm button at 7am on Sunday, April 24.
North Lincolnshire Council, her care provider, initially contacted Mr Donald’s brother, who was in intensive care, but reached him who told them his mother required an ambulance.
After trying to move her himself, he explained: ‘She said she couldn’t stand up and that she’d been stuck there and she daren’t move sideways because she couldn’t put weight on her legs, and she was scared she’d fall off the bed.
‘I couldn’t move her so I rang another family member to help move her, but we couldn’t.
‘We tried to lift her up and she just screamed in pain. We knew then it was an emergency because we had a frail old lady who had been sat on the edge of the bed for six hours, shaking and shivering.
‘It was awful. I rang back and spoke to a very professional lady who said they recognised they hadn’t got to my mum but that it had been upgraded to a Category Two incident’.
According to the East Midlands Ambulance Service website, Category two incidents are classed as an emergency and should be responded to within 18 minutes
Elsewhere, patients have shared their stories of agonising waits for ambulances as NHS England last month admitted it is struggling to cope with a surge in demand and high staff absence rates.
It comes as dozens of others across the country have reported ‘horrendous’ waiting times, with the Liberal Democrats describing the ambulance services as being at ‘breaking point’.
Despite being promised an ambulance six hours prior, her case was upgraded to a ‘Category Two’ response six hours later, meaning medics should have arrived at the property within 18 minutes
The ambulance crew eventually arrived at 7.10pm – around ten hours after Mr Donald first called the ambulance for his mother.
He said: ‘They were brilliant with my mum, I can’t fault them at all.
‘They did checks and said she needed to go to hospital because she’s clearly not right, and she needed hospital care. They took her in an ambulance at about 7.50pm.
‘But they’re playing a gambling game.
‘There cannot be adequate cover if it takes nine-plus hours for an emergency response. What would have happened if my mum had deteriorated?
‘She was screaming in pain and I was crying because I couldn’t lift her. I was so frustrated because I just didn’t know what else I could do.’
Sue Cousland, Divisional Director for Lincolnshire at East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) said: ‘We are really sorry that we were not able to get to her sooner and this is not the level of service we aim to provide for our patients.
‘Unfortunately, we continue to experience a sustained level of life-threatening and serious emergency calls and we continually work to prioritise the sickest and most severely injured patients first.
‘We are working very closely with all of our health and social care partners to improve the response to patients in Lincolnshire.’