Scots great-grandad, 95, forced to wait 17 hours for ambulance after fall at sheltered housing
A GREAT-grandad was forced to wait 17 hours for an ambulance after a fall at his sheltered housing complex.
Alex MacKenzie, 95, endured the mammoth delay despite suffering a suspected fractured shoulder blade and horrific bruising.
Daughter Doreen Jones, 65, rang his GP surgery at 8.20am and was told he couldn’t get a home visit and she should call an ambulance.
However, ambulance chiefs knocked her back at 1pm and said she should contact NHS 24 instead.
The care line’s advisers then arranged a visit from a GP, who again phoned for paramedics at 4pm because Alex needed to go to hospital.
But mercy crews didn’t arrive to collect the stricken war hero — who has mobility issues — from his pad in Ayr till 9.15am on Tuesday.
Retired business analyst Doreen said: “I called the ambulance service again at 8.15am and said we had waited 16 hours – and they arrived within the hour.”
She added: “It took nearly a whole day to get him the help he needed. He was in shock.
“My dad’s case illustrates the pressures the whole system is under.”
WW2 veteran Alex pulled the emergency cord in his home to alert the council-run South Ayrshire Responder team and his daughter at around 7am on Monday.
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They were able to get her dad, who has mobility issues, into a seat and make him comfortable before she called 999.
But because he was not displaying life-threatening symptoms, she was advised to dial 111 instead – before a GP arrived in the afternoon.
She said: “He had a massive bruise on his back and the GP thought he had a fractured scapula, so he needed to go to hospital.
“But I had to set up a camp-bed in his living room and stay with him until the ambulance came.
“Twice during the night – at 11.55pm and 4am – I got apology calls from the ambulance service saying they couldn’t say when the paramedics would arrive.
“She just said they were mobbed with patients and calls.”
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In desperation, Doreen was planning to taxi her dad to hospital herself in his wheelchair when the ambulance arrived at 9.15am.
She added: “All the individual people we dealt with were great – but they are under huge pressure.
“Unless you are in a life or death situation, you are going to have to wait a long time.”
Her dad is currently being assessed at Ayr Hospital.
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We would like offer our sincere apologies for the delay in reaching Mr Mackenzie.
“On Monday 21 March, we were experiencing severe pressures on our service due to high call demand and long patient handover times at hospitals.
“We kept in regular contact with Mr Mackenzie’s family to check on his condition and to apologise for the wait. We are really sorry and hope Mr Mackenzie is recovering well.”
She has since written to her local MSP Siobhan Brown who plans to raise the case with health secretary Humza Yousaf.
We told this week how the number of people waiting more than four, eight and 12 hours at Scotland’s emergency departments has hit its highest recorded level.
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