Apology to family after 10-hour wait for ambulance

An apology has been made to the family of a 72-year old man who had to wait more than 10 hours for an ambulance.

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) received a call from Whitchurch, Shropshire, at 22:14 BST on 11 October, and paramedics arrived at 08:45 the following morning.

James Nuttall's son, Colin, said his father had been "in agony, violently sick and in a terrible state".

WMAS said it had been suffering from long handover delays at hospital.

Mr Nuttall said the family had had no sleep during the night and had made four calls to the ambulance service.

"I haven't had a day off work in 20 years, but I couldn't go in to work that day," he said.

"I've cried more in the last three weeks than i have in the rest of my life."

WMAS said it had been in communication through the night, adding. "Staff in our control room spoke with the caller to reassess the patient's condition several times, each time explaining that an ambulance would respond to the property on blue lights when one became available."

It said the long wait had been caused by "delays being experienced at hospital", which caused it to take "much longer than we would want to get to this gentleman".

After receiving treatment in his home, he eventually reached the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital at about 10:00 on 12 October.

WMAS has complained on a number of occasions about the time its crews have to spend waiting to drop off patients at the hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SATH) said it was taking steps to speed handovers up.

Mr Nuttall said the hospital removed a large tumour from his father's bladder and informed them he had suffered damage to his kidney and pancreas.

He also complained about difficulties in checking on his father's condition.

SATH said: "As soon as we were made aware of the issues raised by Mr Nuttall, we put in place a range of measures to keep him informed and help ensure he was able to communicate with his father."

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