‘Ambulance left me waiting 2.5 hours’
Pictured is Carla Payg
A 66-YEAR-OLD woman left waiting in pain for two and half hours for an ambulance has spoken out about the neglect she felt.
Carla Payg of Long Buckby suffers from several chronic conditions and fell from her bed at around 9.45pm on Wednesday and was unable to get up.
She battles with lupus, osteoporosis, kidney disease and damaged vertebrae which have left her almost immobile and in pain.
She said: “I was crying and I was praying because I couldn’t help myself up and I was in a lot of pain on the floor.
“I was scared and didn’t know if anything was broken.”
She managed to ring for an ambulance and used her lifeline (a community alarm service) to raise the alarm.
She said: “The phone conversation I had with the ambulance service was impersonal, they didn’t seem to care about me and I felt neglect.
“The lifeline service alerted a neighbour to come and sit with me but she couldn’t help me up.”
In a statement about the incident the East Midlands Ambulance service said because Mrs Payg was conscious and breathing she was not categorised as an emergency and required a telephone assessment within 60 minutes after which the next available ambulance was dispatched.
“Ambulance crews were busy responding to life-threatening or serious emergencies and taking people who needed further treatment to hospital. This meant there was a delay in our response to Mrs Payg whose condition remained the same, and for this we apologise.”
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Weather for Daventry
Thursday 20 June 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 13 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
