An elderly disabled cancer survivor was forced to spend hours trying to get his injured wife to hospital after the ambulance service said they would not respond to their emergency, it has been claimed.
Eighty-seven-year-old Audrey Tickner, who has Alzheimer's Disease, diabetes and osteoporosis, suffered a fall at home in Cliffe Terrace, Burry Port, at midnight on Thursday, July 22.
Her husband, Ronald Tickner, called 999 as his wife was in severe pain and "screaming in agony". But their daughter Karen Wilson explained they were told to wait for a call, only to be told two hours later that Mr Tickner would have to get his wife to hospital himself, as they would not be sent an ambulance.
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Mr Tickner, who is 83 and has severe arthritis and severe disability from cancer radiotherapy, felt he had no other choice but to spend an hour trying to get his wife off the floor onto a bed, and then another hour trying to get her into his car.
When Mrs Tickner got to hospital she had an X-Ray which showed she had sustained two severe breaks in her upper arm. Her daughter Mrs Wilson said her mother was put in a sling and sent home, adding that she had been told one of the broken bones was so sharp she should not move it in case it punctured her skin.
Mrs Wilson said: "That is the state of supposed NHS care now. I'm horrified and extremely angry. She is at home with no medical help and surviving on paracetamol every four hours.
"My mum had got up to go to the toilet and fell on her shoulder. She was screaming in agony. My mum has got a very high pain threshold so my dad knew she was seriously hurt. He called 999 and he was told to wait for a call back from a nurse, which came an hour and 45 minutes later. In the meantime my mum didn't know what to do, she was in agony.
"The nurse called back and said that they were not going to be sending an ambulance and that my dad would have to use the car. There was no explanation given at all. He had to get her off the floor and get her clothes on, and then get her into the car which took a long time. My dad just could not get her up.
"She went to Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli and had an X-Ray done, she had two breaks in her upper arm. It was put in a sling and she was told to take painkillers. My dad phoned me to tell me what had happened the next morning and I was dumbfounded. I can't believe an ambulance did not come. I just could not believe it. What would have happened if my dad did not have a car?"
Mrs Wilson is now in the process of lodging a complaint with the Welsh Ambulance Service. She added: "I don't want that to happen to anyone else. I can't believe they would not come out to a woman on the floor at the age of 87. I don't know what the hell is going on."
Interim assistant director of operations ambulance response for the Welsh Ambulance Service, Sonia Thompson, said: “We were really sorry to hear about the experience of Mrs Tickner and would like to extend our apology to her and her family.
“We have experienced significant and well-documented pressures on our ambulance service in recent weeks, which culminated on Monday, July 20, in a ‘ business continuity incident ’. This essentially meant that demand on the service exceeded our capacity to respond and this continued throughout that week.
"We hope that we will be able to speak directly with Mrs Tickner and her family to understand exactly what happened."
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