Coventry pensioner left waiting six hours for an ambulance after fall

[dutchman]

West Midlands Ambulance have apologised and said they are working to reduce delays

West Midlands Ambulance service has apologised for an incident which left a Coventry pensioner waiting for more than six hours for an ambulance.

The incident took place this week after a pensioner had fallen.

The pensioner was eventually seen to by the service, and received further treatment at hospital.

Delays in hospital handovers and a backlog of 999 calls, as well as huge strain on the NHS, is causing delayed response times for ambulances.

West Midlands Ambulance Service told CoventryLive that they are working hard with all local NHS partners to reduce delays to the service.

The incident brings into focus what some in the NHS have described as a national A & E crisis, which has seen severe handover delays in hospitals, which in turns holds up ambulances, with paramedics left with no option but to queue.

This has taken scores of ambulances off the roads, and has left the service under severe pressure.

Last month Richard Webber, a paramedic and spokesman for the College of Paramedics told Sky News that the West Midlands had been the worst-affected region, with waits for ambulances sometimes even lasting eight hours.

Mr Webber said: "Patients are being admitted and what's happening is they cannot move them straight into A&E, so ambulances have become cabs waiting to unload outside hospitals."

[dutchman]

I suspect it will get a lot worse before the winter is over?