Grandmother was strapped to a BIN LID and driven to A&E because there was no ... trends now
A great-grandmother was taken to hospital on a bin lid after being told there were no ambulances available, her family have claimed as 999 crew delays hit their worst ever level.
Pamela Rolfe, 79, broke her hip after falling in a park while walking her dog in Johnstown, north Wales, last week. But when her family called 999, they were told she was not eligible for an ambulance.
Neighbours tore the lid from a grit bin, which was placed under the great-grandmother-of-two so she could be moved into a van and taken to hospital.
Ms Rolfe was given a bed eight hours after her fall and underwent surgery the following day. She is now recovering in hospital.
It comes as NHS data today revealed that nearly half of ambulances faced delays of at least half an hour outside of hospitals last week, as pressure continues to soar on emergency care.
Pamela Rolfe, 79, broke her hip after falling in a park while walking her dog in Johnstown, north Wales, last week. But when her family called 999, they were told she was not eligible for an ambulance
NHS data showed that ambulances record delays when handing over patients to A&E departments in the week to January 1. More than a quarter (18,720) were forced to queue for more than 60 minutes before handing over their patients to A&E (shown in graph)
Ambulances took an average of 48 minutes and eight seconds to respond to372,326 category two calls, such as heart attacks, strokes burns and epilepsy (red bars). This is nearly three times as long as the 18 minute target but around 13 minutes speedier than one month earlier
Ms Rolfe fell around 11am on December 29. Passers-by put a duvet over her while she waited in the wet and windy weather.
Her daughter Dawn Hamilton, 58, phoned 999 but was told she doesn't qualify for one 'due to the current crisis'.
Ms Hamilton, a self-employed carer, said that while 'one of the first rules is not to move someone', a passer-by said someone had recently died while waiting for an ambulance.
In a bid to get her to hospital themselves, they considered using an ironing board to move Ms Rolfe.
But a neighbour instead ripped the lid from a grit bin.
It was put under Ms Rolfe to move her into a van — recently rented by Ms Hamilson's partner — so they could drive to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
They arrived at hospital around 12:30pm, where a paramedic helped to shift Ms Rolfe onto a trolley.
Ms Rolfe was admitted to a ward at 7pm that evening — eight hours after the fall. She underwent hip surgery the following day and is still in hospital.
Ms Hamilton said: 'Once we were in, the nurses were fantastic, so were the paramedics who helped get her on a trolley.
'There was a 93-year-old lady in the bed opposite, her son said she fell in her house and broke her hip. They gave up counting after 33 hours of waiting for an ambulance.'
Neighbours tore the lid from a grit bin, which was placed under the great-grandmother-of-two Rolfe so she could be moved into a van and taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital
Ms Rolfe was given a bed eight hours after her fall and underwent surgery the following day. She is now recovering in hospital
She said: 'I couldn't believe A&E, there were queues outside the door.
'We were told someone was in an ambulance for 24 hours.
'If my mum had got in an ambulance she would have been stuck outside A&E, she could be dead.
'She's 80 this month, it was in a park, it was exposed, it was windy and starting to rain.
'If she had fallen inside there would have been pain management but she would have been warm.'
Ms Hamilton added: 'I keep saying to her "you don't realise how lucky you were".
'Just having the van, it was the luck of god that we had a van.
'The hospital staff were lovely but they are rushed off their feet.'
A mother in Hull (pictured) has told how she was forced to spend two nights sleeping on chairs in Hull Royal Infirmary's A&E while waiting for a bed after she was admitted with a suspected stomach ulcer
Steven Parsons (pictured), from Monmouth, was told there were no ambulances to take his grandfather, 83-year-old Bernard Saunders, to A&E and had to drive him there himself. But when they arrived, Mr Saunders had a cardiac arrest in the A&E carpark. He survived the incident, but remains in hospital receiving medical care
Pictured: Ambulances waiting at an Emergency Department at the Royal London hospital in east London on January 6
Pictured: Ambulances waiting at an Emergency Department at the Royal London hospital in east London on January 6
Some patients were forced to lie on the floor in the busy A&E due to a lack of beds
Paramedics have been forced to assemble makeshift wards in corridors of Aintree Hospital A&E due to a surge in demand
