A man with terrible burns who waited an hour and 18 minutes for paramedics to reach him felt he was “left to die” after it emerged that more than 20 ambulances were being used as “waiting rooms” in local hospital car parks as he lay in agony.
Chris Williams-Ellis, 41, suffered 45% burns to his body in the blaze at his home in Denbighshire, north Wales, in September and remains very ill in hospital.
A serious incident investigation report seen by the Guardian highlighted that the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) had been under “severe pressure” largely because so many of its vehicles were held up in hospital car parks at the time waiting to hand over patients.
Speaking to the Guardian from his hospital bed, Williams-Ellis, a company director, said: “My overall feeling is that I was ignored and left to die. That to them my life was valueless and not worth saving. I was in terrible pain without any relief, frightened, being sick and freezing cold.”
Williams-Ellis’ partner had helped him into a bath and shower to try to ease the pain as they waited for help.
He said: “After a while my skin started to fall off. My dad told me my mother had removed chunks of my flesh from the shower and bath drain tray.”
Williams-Ellis said he was angry that so many ambulances and crews were held outside hospitals when he was in dire need. “This is caused by the disorganisation within NHS Wales hospitals.”
He also criticised the Welsh government. “To me the politicians in Cardiff only care what happens where people can easily reach them in their ‘palace’ in Cardiff. They have no empathy, affinity, care or knowledge of life in north Wales.”
His mother, Philomene Williams-Ellis, said: “Expensive emergency vehicles were in NHS hospital car parks acting as waiting rooms and this at the time that my child was in agony and dying.”
Williams-Ellis, who imports classic American cars, was in a mechanic’s pit in a barn on 8 September when a vehicle he was working beneath caught fire. His partner, Catherine Stewart, dashed into the flames, hauled him out and dialled 999 at 2.51pm.
Between 2.55pm and 3.41pm staff at the clinical contact centre searched four times for an ambulance or rapid response vehicle to send but none was available. After a fifth attempt, one was dispatched, arriving at 4.09pm.
Williams-Ellis was taken to a burns unit in Merseyside. He developed pneumonia and was put into an induced coma. He is due to have a difficult operation to save his hand and arm.
The investigation report concluded that had the first call taker correctly categorised the case it was likely an ambulance would have been with him 28 minutes earlier.
It also said that at the time the service had been facing “severe pressure” with all its emergency vehicles committed to calls of higher or equal priority or parked up at three hospitals in north Wales.
The report said that during the hour and 18 minutes Williams-Ellis waited, 23 ambulance vehicles arrived at or were already waiting at the three hospitals. Only two of the 23 vehicles handed over patients within 15 minutes – the transfer period it said was agreed with health boards and the Welsh government.
It added: “A total of 27 hours and 54 minutes of unexpected time was lost within these three hospitals by the WAST resources which arrived at these hospitals during the time frame.”
Williams-Ellis and his family believe the 23 vehicles equated to about three quarters of the ambulances operating that day.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases, however excessive waits for an ambulance response are not acceptable for any patient.
“We expect all patients to be transferred from ambulance vehicles to the care of emergency department staff in order of clinical priority and always in a timely manner.
“Ambulance patient handover delays are a UK-wide challenge and requires a whole system approach to achieve improvement. We continue to work alongside health boards and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust to support improvement, this has included investment in recruitment of 136 ambulance clinicians this year alone.”
Jason Killens, the chief executive at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “A full and thorough investigation identified a number of issues which contributed to a delay in reaching Christopher, for which we are very sorry, including the management of 999 calls as well as staffing shortfalls. We are committed to learning from these findings and are already addressing them.
“Our investigation also found that at the time of this call, all of our resources were committed to other patients in the community and at hospital, where crews waited for long periods to transfer patients still in our care to hospital staff.
“More than 27 hours of ambulance time was lost at hospitals in North Wales while Mr Williams-Ellis waited for our help. This delay is unacceptable and is absolutely not the service we strive to provide.
“We’re working closely with health board colleagues to deliver improvements which reduce pressure on busy emergency departments and free up our ambulances for our most critical patients. We have maintained contact with the Williams-Ellis family throughout the investigation, and continue to do so. We would like to extend our best wishes to Mr Williams-Ellis for his continued recovery.”
Debra Hickman, interim executive director of nursing and midwifery at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which runs the three hospitals, said: “We are aware our performance on ambulance conveyance rates has deteriorated due to changes we have had to make to our emergency departments as a result of Covid-19.
“We continue to work closely with our Welsh ambulance service colleagues to improve handover times at all of our district general hospitals. We are constantly working to improve our hospital flow and discharge rates, which will support our ability to transfer patients from ambulances more quickly.”
