A grandmother was forced to lie on a runway and wait 13 hours for an ambulance after suffering a fall. 83-year-old Brenda Hardy had to endure the "inhumane" wait for an ambulance after falling and breaking her hip on Newquay Airport's runway last month.
CornwallLive reports that the pensioner's granddaughter Emma Hardy had travelled from Swansea to fly to Alicante for a holiday with her nan, who lives in Goonhavern. As they were about to board the plane, she said Brenda fainted and collapsed on the Newquay Airport runway, breaking her hip.
Emma said it took 13 hours for an ambulance to arrive for her grandmother who was forced to wait in a succession of ambulances for a further 21 hours when she eventually arrived at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. Emma described the wait as "inhumane".
Read more: Patient waited almost two days in an ambulance to be admitted to A&E
"I can't fault Newquay Airport as their first responders were on the scene straight away, but they didn't want to move her as her hip was hurting," she said. "We phoned for an ambulance at 4pm and by 5.40pm she was still lying on the tarmac - she had blankets over her, but we couldn't get anything under her to make her more comfortable, and she was getting much colder. We were told she had been upgraded to priority one, which should mean an ambulance would get to her in 18 minutes."
The airport's firemen stretchered Brenda into the executive lounge at the airport at 6pm as it was decided it would do her more harm than good being left on the runway. An ambulance finally arrived at 4.50am, 13 hours after the initial call. "My nan was saying 'why is no one helping me, don't they care?' That's excruciating to hear as a family member," Emma said. "She kept her sense of humour though and asked if the air ambulance, which is based next door, could take her as she pays her subscriptions to it, but they couldn't self-deploy."
When Brenda reached Treliske she waited for a further 21 hours, moving ambulances four times before she got a bed. She was released from hospital on her 84th birthday on Monday after receiving an emergency hip replacement. Emma said: "The wait time for an ambulance was inhumane."
Emma contacted CornwallLive after reading its story this week about Mary Kinsella, 72, who lay in a cold Helston street for nine hours due to a lack of available ambulances on Tuesday.
An ambulance was called at 1.35pm but didn’t arrive until 10.30pm. Mary’s family repeatedly called the ambulance service but were told there wasn’t one available. When Cornwall Live's story was published 24 hours after the fall, Mary remained in an ambulance sat outside Treliske as there were no beds available.
Mary’s granddaughter Bethany said: "Our family are very shocked and appalled at the situation. It’s upsetting to see anyone you love in pain and injured, never mind your 72-year-old grandparent laying in the freezing cold for nine hours without any assistance at all.
“You hear stories about this stuff but you just don’t believe it. I think more people need to know about this because something needs to be done. I absolutely dread to think about what’s been going on to other poorly/injured people over Cornwall that we don’t hear about."
A spokesperson for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust said: "Our staff are doing everything they can to get patients into the emergency department; none of us want anyone to experience long waits in ambulances. We currently have nearly 120 people in our hospitals, and a similar number in community hospitals, who are waiting to go home with support or to other care settings. If we could make those beds available, we would not have ambulances waiting.
“We are working tirelessly to get a steady flow of patients out of the emergency department and our assessment units throughout the day and, where needed, admitted onto our wards. We’re using our discharge lounge for those patients ready to leave hospital, to help us free up beds and ambulances as quickly as we can.
“The local health and social care system remains under sustained pressure and we are working together to keep people safe and make sure they can get the right care in the place that’s most appropriate for their needs.”
A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said: “Our ambulance clinicians strive every day to give their best to patients, but our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays at emergency departments.
“Health and social care services are under enormous pressure. We are working with our partners to ensure our ambulance clinicians can get back out on the road as quickly as possible, to respond to other 999 calls within the community."
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