NHS: man waits 6 hours for West Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics after a fall

A man with severe disabilities was stuck on the floor for more than six hours while waiting for paramedics after a fall at home.

David Steele, 62, has suffered more than 120 falls since undergoing neck surgery which left him with life changing injuries in 2009.

He wears a pendant alarm which he can use to contact emergency services when this happens – but after a fall in December, David was left waiting until nearly 1am for help to arrive after calling for help at 6.30pm.

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) took the unprecedented step of moving handover delays to the highest possible level on October 27.

Three months later the ‘rating 25’ remains in place, with no imminent plans to reduce it.

The NHS service recently put out an appeal for retired paramedics to come back to work to help ease the pressure.

In response to this incident WMAS said problems with waiting times on the day stemmed from long hospital handover delays while “the whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure”.

Mr Steele occasionally loses feeling in his ankles as a result of nerve damage, and can fall instantly – and is not able to get himself back up when this happens.

He called for help at around 6.30pm on December 10 following a fall at his home in Holloway Head, Birmingham, but paramedics did not arrive until 12.48am. They were able to get him back on his feet.

What did Mr Steele say about his 6 hour wait for paramedics in his own words?

Mr Steele, a former school caretaker, said: “I have trouble with the nerves in my ankles and lower back and occasionally they will switch off without warning.

“I lost the feeling in my ankles and lost balance which meant I fell on the floor.

“I used my pendant alarm. They answered me and said ‘were you seriously hurt?’ and I said no. I was waiting until 1am for the ambulance to turn up, which is six-and-a-half hours.

“Luckily I could reach my urine bottle, otherwise I would have peed myself to the tune of one litre, which is what I did in the bottle while waiting.

“I am so terrified of falling because I don’t know when I am going to fall, and I don’t know when I am going to get help.

“Because of being left so long, I got in my head that nobody cared and nobody was coming and started having panic attacks.

“I don’t know how female fallers manage when men can easily pee in a container to hand rather than pee themselves and the floor while waiting for help.”

Mr Steele suggested St John Ambulance could take patients in lower category cases to take pressure off the ambulances.

What has West Midlands Ambulance Service said about Mr Steele’s wait?

A WMAS spokesperson said the call had been placed as category 3, the second lowest priority.

They said: “The whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure and unfortunately, long hospital handover delays on the day meant some of our patients waited longer for an ambulance to come to them in the community than we would want.

“We are working with all local partners across the health and care system to reduce delays so crews can respond to the next incident as quickly as possible.

“We would like to apologise to Mr Steele for the time it took to reach him. Our staff are working tirelessly to respond to patients as soon as we can.”

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