A grandfather who suffered a nasty fall was forced to wait 15 hours on the urine-soaked floor of his home for an ambulance to arrive, his family claims. Keith Morris, from Merthyr Tydfil, fell in his kitchen on Thursday, October 13, and his distressed wife dialled 999 for an ambulance at around 10.30am.
Despite several follow-up calls the 79-year-old remained on the cold, hard floor until 1.30am the next day when the paramedics finally turned up to treat him. His daughter Andrea Morris-Nicholas described the wait as "completely unacceptable" and said the whole ordeal stripped her father of his dignity.
"It's just not good enough for for an elderly diabetic to be on a cold tiled floor for 15 hours. He was writhing in pain and shivering as he'd been in the same position the entire time," said Andrea, from Brecon. "He'd also wet himself because he had no choice but to do that – it was just so stressful for him and us as a family."
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Andrea said that Keith, a former miner who was one of the first on the scene during the Aberfan school disaster in 1966, had visited Prince Charles Hospital the day before complaining of balance issues but was discharged. She said the family were told by the ambulance service call handler to leave Keith on the floor until they could reach him as they didn't know the extent of his injuries.
"We were told by the Welsh Ambulance Service that there were a lack of ambulances in the area that day. We placed several calls to 999 and were told if he wasn't bleeding or vomiting the ambulance would be delayed," she claimed.
"The colour was draining out of my dad's face. We had to cover him in blankets and place a heater next to him to try and keep his body temperature warm. After my mother put in a second 999 call, I believe at around 5pm, we were told we would have to wait an additional six to eight hours.
"It was such a long wait. In Wales we're like a third-world country when it comes to our healthcare. We have better treatment for our animals. I'm sure Aneurin Bevan would be turning in his grave."
When the ambulance crew finally arrived in the early hours of the following morning Andrea said they apologised and admitted their resources were very limited that day. She added: "I spoke to an ambulance service manager the other day and he said there were problems with funding and particularly the amount of ambulances stuck outside hospitals waiting to hand over patients in hospital. I do feel for their situation.
"But I never thought in 2022 that we'd be seeing things like this. I lived in America for 25 years and I saw the state of the healthcare system where people with money would get the best care. I fear it's going that way here which is very unfortunate."
Andrea added that she believes her father, who worked at the Hoover factory until his retirement, may have been discharged from Prince Charles Hospital too soon so that space could be freed up in A&E. She said he went in because he was falling over too frequently.
She said she was in complete sympathy with Welsh Ambulance Service staff who are doing their utmost to keep people safe in difficult circumstances. "Two of my friends from school are paramedics in Merthyr and they're so frustrated. They say their hands are tied a lot of the time – it must be awful doing a job in those circumstances," she added.
"I would like to get this message out there to help support our Welsh Ambulance Service as I feel that it's broken. We need change and lessons ought to be learned and not repeated.
"Our NHS was once a world leader of how a civilised society provided healthcare. Societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable and ill – how will the world judge us?" Andrea added that her father didn't need to be taken by ambulance to hospital after the fall and is now recovering from the traumatic event.
A spokeswoman for the Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed that they have spoken with Andrea, supported her to make a formal complaint and are working with her to investigate what happened.
Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, has repeatedly stated that handover delays – where ambulance staff are unable to transfer their patients over to overcrowded A&E departments – continue to inhibit their ability to respond to emergencies in the community. "The issues and consequences of extended patient handover at emergency departments is deep-rooted and well-documented," he said. "Unfortunately there is no quick fix. There are many factors impacting the delay in offloading patients into hospitals. This is as frustrating for our staff as it is for patients so we continue to do all we can with our partners to ease the system-wide pressures to put a stop to long delays outside emergency departments."
On Tuesday, October 11, health minister Eluned Morgan confirmed that 100 new ambulance clinicians will start work in Wales this winter to help boost staffing levels. "These new frontline staff will help to improve response times and provide better care for people in an emergency," she said.
"We're working hard to reduce ambulance patient handover times at hospitals. The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust is making changes to ambulance staff rosters to improve efficiency, supporting crews to respond to 999 calls. But demand for emergency services continues to grow."
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