A woman who was just days away from celebrating her 100th birthday died after waiting nine hours for an ambulance with a broken hip and bleeding on the brain, her family claims. The pensioner, who fell and fractured her hip on September 16, 2021, was reportedly on the floor of her Monmouthshire home between 11.20pm and 8.15am the following day before being taken to hospital by paramedics.
Her family claims she then spent hours in a "cold" ambulance outside The Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran before she was eventually admitted into A&E and given a bed at 3.15pm on September 17, 2021. The following Saturday the 99-year-old tragically died of her injuries. Her heartbroken daughter said this should never have happened in a 21st-century healthcare system.
The Grange University Hospital, which cost £350m to build, opened its doors for the first time in November 2020, four months ahead of schedule. It centralised many critical care and specialist services, including A&E, previously provided at the Royal Gwent Hospital and Nevill Hall Hospital. But ever since its premature opening the emergency department has experienced a number of major issues.
