Cwmbran: Man with broken hip taken to hospital tied to plank

A man who had broken his hip was taken to hospital strapped to a plank in the back of a van after his granddaughter was told no ambulances were available.

Nicole Lea found Melvyn Ryan behind the door of his home after he pressed an emergency call button around his neck.

When she got there, she discovered the 89-year-old Suez Crisis veteran also had a broken shoulder.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was below what it aimed to offer and health minister Eluned Morgan apologised.

"That's not acceptable (what happened) and it's a really poor service, but I hope people will understand that the reason for that is that the pressure for the service is such that we've never seen before," she added.

Ms Morgan appealed to the public to only call for an ambulance if they "absolutely need to", adding: "We have never seen demand like this on the NHS in its history."

The minster also warned things will not improve in the short-term, saying: "Demand this week has gone through the roof."

She highlighted difficulty getting people out of hospital beds because of care capacity in the community, the cold weather affecting many with breathing difficulties, as well as Strep A infections.

Describing Mr Ryan's situation, Ms Lea said she went to the grandfather-of-eight's home, in Cwmbran, Torfaen, just after midnight on Friday.

She called 999 immediately, adding: "They turned around and said they were unable to send anyone, there wasn't any help to send and that I'd have to find a way of getting him there myself."

The call handler advised her to call the out-of-hours GP before saying she had to go to deal with other calls.

"I was just sat there then, on my own on the floor with my 89-year-old grandfather wondering how we were going to get out of this situation," Ms Lea, from Pontypool, said.

She did not call the GP as she thought it would be a waste of time.

"With my partner and my mum's help we managed to come up with the idea of getting him onto a plank of wood and into the back of my partner's van to get him up to hospital," Ms Lea said.

Once in the van he was driven to Grange University Hospital, in Cwmbran with the family trying to keep him "as warm as possible" on the journey, Ms Lea said.

It was described as "the most appalling of experiences" by Dr Iona Collins, chairwoman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Cymru.

"How must the ambulance service feel when they are getting calls like this? Obvious its an emergency and they need help and they are unable to help," she told Radio Wales Breakfast.

"This is the stuff of nightmares."

Despite problems getting the patient there, Ms Lea described hospital staff as "amazing".

"It was just the utter shock of being told that no help was coming and the thought in my head was, 'Oh my God, he's going to die'.

"I genuinely thought we were going to lose him. I didn't think that we'd be able to get him there in time and safe enough because any slight movement could have killed him," she said.

She said knowing the ambulance service was too stretched was "horrifying".

"We were very fortunate in the fact that we did have a large van and that I had family there that were able to come and assist," Ms Lea said.

"It's just something that does not sit right in this day and age," she said.

Ms Lea said she had sympathy for the NHS but was angry the elderly were not cared for "like they should be".

Ms Lea said: "I do believe something can be done and needs to be done about this situation it cannot continue the way it is."

She said her grandfather was doing well after having an operation on his hip.

Welsh Ambulance Service operations director Lee Brooks said: "We are sorry to hear about Mr Ryan's experience earlier this week, it is certainly below the level of service that we aim to offer.

"We appreciate why this would be upsetting for both Mr Ryan and his family, as it is for us and our people as well."

He invited Mr Ryan and his family to get in contact so the matter could be investigated.

On Sunday, the Welsh Ambulance Service declared a "business continuity incident", which has since been stood down.

Mr Brooks said these were rare, adding: "The demand experienced at the weekend was unprecedented, we received in excess of 2,000 emergency 999 calls and received over 10,000 calls into NHS 111 Wales on both Saturday and Sunday."

He urged people only to call 999 for "a life-threatening emergency".

"That's a cardiac arrest, chest pain or breathing difficulties, loss of consciousness, choking, or catastrophic bleeding," Mr Brooks added.

Welsh Ambulance Service boss Jason Killens said the service took a fifth more 999 calls than the previous weekend and 300% more 111 calls.

He said this increase combined with pressure in health, social and emergency care had led to ambulances being delayed in handing over patients at emergency departments.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board's deputy chief operating officer Sarah James said high demand was "ongoing" said they were doing all they could to improve the situation.

Aneurin Bevan Health Board said it was dealing with large numbers of winter viruses, putting "severe" pressure on the system, including the children's emergency assessment unit and GP services.

"This morning, Monday, there were already more than 100 patients waiting in our emergency department by 10am," a spokesman said.