That’s the question a husband wants Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan answered after his wife had to wait 10 hours for an ambulance.
Brian Kenwrick called 999 at around 9:45am on Tuesday January 3, after his wife Catherine, 75, suffered a fall at their St Julians home after suffering what turned out to be a stroke.
“She ran out of legs under her,” said Mr Kenwrick, 80. “I couldn’t get it up. She could have done more damage.
“They said it would be three hours before they arrived. I informed them that I am disabled. How am I going to get my wife in the car and take her to the hospital?
“He was on the landing all day, it’s ridiculous.
“They had to send an ambulance from Cardiff for her.”
Although he is dismayed by how long they had to wait, Kenwrick praised the ambulance crew who finally arrived, saying: “They were brilliant.”
Mrs Kenwrick was taken to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital, but due to visitor restrictions her husband was unable to stay with her and could only visit for an hour at a time.
“[The ambulance staff] he took her in and kept her in a cart in the heat,” Mr Kenwrick said. “The ambulance service stayed with her.
“I would have preferred to be sitting next to her at night so she knew I was there.”
Kenwrick said his wife was still on the streetcar when she visited again around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
“When the health minister says we have no crisisSo what do we have? My wife was lying at the top of the stairs for hours. I called them four times,” she said.
“It bothers me. We are supposed to have a health service.
“But I don’t blame them, the staff and paramedics were brilliant. I blame the Welsh government.”
Kenwrick said they were later told his wife had fallen after suffering a stroke.
He Argus he approached the Welsh government for comment, asking: “Is the Welsh NHS in crisis?”.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We regret that the service delivered has fallen short of expected standards on this occasion. The NHS and the Welsh Ambulance Service are facing unprecedented demand this winter.
“There is a national improvement plan in place to increase the number of ambulance staff, improve the efficiency with which staff and resources are used, improve response times and reduce delays in the delivery of ambulance patients, freeing up more time for staff to respond to calls.”
Darren Panniers, South East Service Manager for Wales Ambulance Service, said: “We are very sorry to hear about Ms Kenwrick’s experience, and understand that it will have been an incredibly harrowing time for her and her husband as they waited. for our help to come.
“Unfortunately, Ms Kenwrick’s experience is not unique, as patients in Wales and the UK face longer waits for an ambulance response due to broader system pressures on health and social care. .
“We are currently experiencing scenarios where more than 30 percent of our ambulance doctors are waiting outside hospitals to deliver patient care.
“This is not the level of service we want to provide to patients across Wales and as an organization we are working hard to improve our response as a matter of urgency.”
A spokesperson for the Aneurin Bevan University Board of Health said: “We are very sorry about Ms Kenwrick’s experience and her long wait; this is certainly not the standard of service we claim to provide.
“We recognize the value of allowing patients to have visitors and will encourage and accommodate this wherever possible. However, the level of spread of respiratory infections in our community means that we have had to limit visiting hours at our hospitals to protect vulnerable patients.
“We would like to thank our residents for their patience at this time and our incredible staff, who continue to work incredibly hard to keep our services running and seeing patients as quickly as possible.”
