An 85-year-old cancer sufferer was forced to wait in the rain for seven long hours for an ambulance to arrive despite living across the hospital.
Keith Royles was cutting his lawn when he suddenly broke his hip.
But he was forced to lay on his patio for seven long hours, with his family trying to protect him from the rain by covering his body and placing an umbrella over his head.
Mr. Royles’ furious daughter, Tina, said that they called an ambulance but were told that there would be a wait between 4 to 7 hours.
“We called several times and my sister even tried to flag down an ambulance but they said they couldn’t help,” she expressed.
The elderly patient lives just across the road from the major Ysbyty Glan Clwyd Hospital but when paramedics arrived, they were told to take the 85-year-old to a different hospital more than 30 miles away as the one close to the house was ‘too busy.’
The family then managed to argue for their father to be taken over the road.
“As a family, we’re not faulting the staff, but the system is broken,” Tina told S4C program Y Byd ar Bedwar.
“I feel sorry for the people that have gotten into the service because it must be so frustrating and heartbreaking to be in that situation.
‘They must be leaving in their droves.”
In a statement, Lee Brooks, the Executive Director of Operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We are deeply sorry about Mr. Royles’ experience, which was no doubt a painful and anxious wait for all involved.
“Hospital handover delays remain the single biggest reason we cannot get to some patients quickly. It’ll take a system-wide effort to resolve a system-wide issue.”
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