Heatwave: People 'walking into A&E with life-threatening conditions'

People have been walking into A&E with life-threatening conditions because of ambulance delays during the heatwave, a hospital boss has said.

Morriston Hospital in Swansea made the revelation amid a 30% rise in life-threatening "red" calls to the Welsh Ambulance Service in the past week.

On Monday, ambulance chiefs said the service was at risk of being disrupted.

It said the hot weather and hospital delays meant demand had overtaken its capacity to respond safely.

An extreme heat warning - the UK's first - is in place across large parts of Wales and southern England until Thursday.

Morriston Hospital said the heatwave was putting an additional strain on health services which were already experiencing high demand.

Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) figures showed overall calls had risen by 11% compared to last Monday, with red category calls up by almost 30%, and were up 29% compared to the same Monday last year.

It responded by asking people to make their own way to hospital in some cases.

WAST operations director Lee Brooks said: "Yesterday's heat, coupled with the delays at hospitals, meant we reached a point in the early evening where demand actually overtook our capacity to respond in a safe and timely way.

"For anyone who had an excessive wait for an ambulance yesterday, we are very sorry for your experience and this is not the service we want to provide."

Mr Brooks said there was a "significant step change" on Saturday.

"I think we've had the culmination of further easing of restrictions here in Wales, the start of the holiday period and of course the sharp rise in temperatures," he said.

Mr Brooks said the service was more stable on Tuesday but urged people only to call 999 "if a life is on the line".

Mark Poulden, clinical director of emergency medicine at Morriston, said: "Like emergency departments across Wales, Morriston Hospital has been seeing higher numbers of sicker patients coming through the doors for some time.

"As the Welsh Ambulance Service is under extreme pressure, we have begun seeing patients walk in with life-threatening conditions.

"All of this has a knock-on effect of increasing waiting times for those with less serious injuries or illnesses."

Kevin McKeown, who has epilepsy and mental health issues, needed an ambulance after falling down stairs at Grange Lodge care home.

His sister, Amanda Wells, said staff at the home on Clive Road, Cardiff, called the service to ask for an ambulance and were told 'no'.

"He's got a broken collar bone, a punctured lung, broken ribs, a gash on his head, because he was bleeding so badly," Ms Wells said.

"The care home had to take him in themselves, which they were very concerned about because they didn't want to move him, in case they caused any more damage."

She said she had "had nothing" from the ambulance service

Ms Wells added: "I've tried speaking to members of the Senedd, I've tried contacting the ambulance service, the Welsh government, and nobody has spoken to me.

"They want me to send an email instead, and that's not good enough".

WAST said it was "sorry" and "concerned" to hear of Mr McKeown's injuries and was experiencing "incredibly high demand" at the time of the 999 call.

"We will be reaching out to Mr McKeown's family to fully hear and explore their concerns," a spokesman added.