Ambulance delays: Woman from Hamilton, 89, waits nearly four hours on kerb with broken hip

The family of an 89-year-old woman who lay on a pavement with a broken hip for nearly four hours waiting for an ambulance say they feel “extremely let down”.

When Agnes Healy tripped on a kerb in Hamilton on September 21, her family immediately rang for an ambulance, and were told waiting times were just over an hour.

As the hours passed, son James continued to call for updates – before deciding to drive her to the hospital himself.

The final straw for the Healy family was when a call handler told them their mother’s age made “no difference” to how ambulances are allocated.

‘Call handler was a disgrace’

“She was in an awful lot of pain”, James told STV News. “She was lying on the ground, and we were told we could not move her because that might exacerbate the situation.

“So you had to leave her there.

“I said she’s white as a sheet, you know, her breathing is very laboured, but none of that made a difference. The cold handler, quite frankly, was a disgrace at that point.

“He said it ‘doesn’t matter if she’s one or 100, it’s not taken into account’. And another thing he said was that if ‘she’s still breathing, then it’s not necessarily a top priority’.

Agnes had to wait on the kerb for three and a half hours. STV News

“I was to call back should things deteriorate, and I said to him, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ I’m not a health professional. I can’t see how it can get much worse unless she actually does stop breathing.

“He just repeated that line again. I didn’t cancel the ambulance in the house where my mum had been lying outside the house, they said it arrived at 9pm that night, which was virtually five hours from the first call.”

Agnes’s incident happened on the same day a teenage footballer had to wait five hours for an ambulance after breaking her leg during a match.

Edinburgh & East

‘My daughter waited five hours in agony after breaking leg at football match’

Brooke Paterson, 19, suffered a double-leg break during a Scottish Cup game in North Lanarkshire on Sunday.

Brooke Paterson was injured in a tackle during a game between her Linlithgow Rose side and Cumbernauld United in North Lanarkshire.

Despite an ambulance being called multiple times, it took five hours for one to arrive, leaving the 19-year-old lying “in agony” on the pitch, covered with jackets to keep her warm.

Brooke Paterson had to wait five hours for an ambulance. STV News

A complaint was raised with the Scottish Ambulance Service, and the issue was raised at Parliament, with First Minister John Swinney admitting the wait was an “error in classification” during an apology to the teen.

“I regret very much the experience Brooke Paterson has had”, he said.

“That’s not acceptable, that is an error that has been made, and we need to look into whether that is the case or whether there are other steps that need to be taken to remedy that.”

Last month, ambulance staff in Aberdeen told STV News about significant delays in handover at hospitals.

It came after data showed ambulance turnaround times at the health board are now more than double those recorded in some other health boards.

“In my opinion, it’s just, you know, horrendous level of service”, James added. “It needs to be looked at. They need to look at the processes, and there needs to be some sort of improvement made.

“I think I’m very supportive of everything they’re trying to do. I do understand all the challenges that are there. But I have to say that I feel extremely let down by what’s happened.”

Ambulance service sorry for failings

The ambulance service has said it was “sincerely” sorry for the failings, and a full investigation will be launched.

A spokesperson said: “We would like to sincerely apologise to Mrs Healy for the delay in the ambulance response and for any distress caused.

“We can confirm that we received a number of calls on 21 September to attend this incident, but high demand and significant hospital handover delays, which extended up to 3 hours in the area, delayed our response, meaning we were unable to attend immediately.

“We triage calls to ensure we prioritise the most seriously ill patients, and our call handler explained our assessment considers the patient’s condition, not the age of the patient.

“We will review the circumstances relating to the delay in reaching Mrs Healy. An investigation has been launched, and all findings and lessons learned will be shared with Mrs Healy as part of this process.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said an investigation had also been launched into the circumstances behind Brooke Paterson’s wait for an ambulance.