Devon man drives wife to A&E amid ambulance delays

A man said he was told his wife would be waiting "many hours" for an ambulance, even though she was in and out of consciousness.

As a result, Mike Symondson took his wife Julie to hospital after she fell from a wall in their Devon garden.

It comes as Devon councillors voted for health bosses to make improvements.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) admitted it was "taking too long" to get to patients.

Mr Symondson, from Sidmouth, said: "We all assume if we're in desperate need, we can ring 999 and somebody will come and help.

"Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

"She [Julie] was lying in the road, she's over 60, she's bleeding, she's disoriented, she couldn't feel her arms or legs, and nobody could help.

"It worries me that there is no back up anymore."

Mrs Symondson is now recovering at home.

Councillors on Devon County Council's Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee voted to ask the NHS in Devon to explore ways to improve onward care in the community.

The report discussed by councillors said the South West had the longest ambulance handover delays in England.

It revealed that in one week in February, 36% of ambulances in the region were kept waiting more than 30 minutes. In the South East, the figure for the same week was 12%.

Linked to this figure was the number of patients who were ready to leave hospital, but had no care package in place.

The report showed that on an average day in Devon, 200 patients were waiting for post-hospital care.

Councillors heard that was because of a shortage of carers - with 7% of care posts in the county vacant.

The report said Devon needed about 2,000 more carers than it had.

It said improving the provision of care in the community would help to free up hospital beds and, in turn, reduce the length of ambulance queues.

A spokesperson for SWASFT said: "The whole health and social care system has been under sustained pressure for many months now, meaning patients are having to wait longer for an ambulance than they would expect.

"Our performance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to handover delays caused by capacity issues in hospitals, and in community and social care.

"This means it's currently taking us too long to get an ambulance to patients.

"This is a risk which we recognise is unacceptable.

"We continue to work on a daily basis with our partners to ensure our crews can get back out on the road as quickly as possible, to respond to other 999 calls."

John Finn, director of hospital commissioning at NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "Patient safety and care is our number one priority.

"We are sorry for the delays people have experienced and for the huge anxiety this causes to patients and their families and to hard-working frontline staff."

The government has previously told the BBC the NHS had allocated £150m of additional funding to address pressures on ambulance services.

It added a national taskforce was looking at ways to tackle the issue.

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