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"Long waiting times for an ambulance"

About: South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as the patient),

I’m in my 70s and following a stroke a few years ago am paralysed down one side. Recently I needed to go to the bathroom in the night and lost my balance and fell in the bath. Thankfully I did not hurt myself but I was unable to get up.

My husband was also not able to help me up so he called for an ambulance. The ambulance crew were wonderful, they were ever so nice.

However, I was very upset at being left for so long – my husband called 999 at 3: 14am but the ambulance did not come until 6: 08. That was a long time to be left in a very uncomfortable position in the bath. We were told the ambulance would arrive within an hour but we left it for an hour and a quarter before ringing again, we waited over an hour after the second call.

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Responses

Response from Sara Coburn, Patient Engagement Manager, Governance, South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust 8 years ago
Sara Coburn
Patient Engagement Manager, Governance,
South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust
Submitted on 17/08/2015 at 11:45
Published on Care Opinion at 13:27


Hi Banjo473

Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us. I hope you are recovering well after your fall.

There has been some media coverage recently that has highlighted how incredibly busy our service is at present; we will always get to you as soon as we are able to.  However I am very sorry you had to wait longer than expected for an ambulance to reach you.We would be happy to look into what happened on this occasion for you.  If you would like us to do this, may I ask you to contact our Patient Experience Team on either swast.patientexperience@nhs.net or 01392 261 585 and a member of the team will take some more information from you.

Thank you, again, for taking some time to provide feedback on our service.

Sara

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