Sting woman ‘had to wait hour for 999 help’

A woman from the Powys border suffering a severe reaction to a wasp sting had to wait more than an hour for an ambulance, it was claimed today.

Glenice Jones, from Llansilin, near Oswestry, was stung while visiting her daughter’s home in Penybontfawr, in Powys, and experienced an anaphylactic reaction.

Shortly after being stung by the wasp, Mrs Jones began to feel ill. But when her daughter, Ursula Owen, dialled 999 on the advice of Shrop Doc, she was told by the Welsh Ambulance Service that the nearest crew was some miles away.

Realising the seriousness of her mother’s illness, Mrs Owen then managed to contact someone with adrenaline medication.

Mrs Owen said: “The ambulance operator could not promise when the crew would arrive so I contacted a neighbour who knew another person two-and-a-half miles away with the necessary Epi pen.

“Once obtained we gave this to mum and were later told by the accident and emergency doctor that it had saved her life, due to the severity of her reaction.”

Mrs Owen said when the ambulance crew arrived they were excellent, but took an hour to get there.

She added: “I feel that this is totally unacceptable. Other people may not be as lucky as my mum was. But emergency care should not be based on luck.”

Mike Collins, for Central and West region of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “First of all can I apologise for any distress which may have been caused by this delay at what must have been an extremely worrying time. Our two closest ambulances were unfortunately involved in other emergency calls at the time.”