'If an ambulance does not come soon she could freeze to death' - Pensioner in her 80s left on ice for nearly three hours after slip in Telford street
The ambulance service has apologised after a pensioner who had slipped on the ice in a Telford village was left lying on the street for nearly three hours.
The woman fell in Blenheim Road in Leegomery at around 10am on Wednesday after slipping on the icy street.
Residents in the road rushed to assist the woman, who was described as in her 80s, and called an ambulance at 10.06am.
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However, after more than two hours, and repeated calls, no ambulance had arrived.
A resident on Blenheim Road told the Shropshire Star: “She has been there for more than two hours. If it does not come soon she could freeze to death. It's disgusting.”
He added a neighbour was tending to the woman while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.
The ambulance finally arrived at 12.45pm.
West Midlands Ambulance Service has apologised for the delay.
A spokeswoman said: “Firstly, we would like to offer our sincere apologies to the patient for the delayed response she experienced.
"Sadly, some patients wait much longer for a response than we would want as a result of hospital handover delays.
“There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly.
“We continue to work with the hospital and the rest of the NHS to try and find new ways to reduce hospital handover delays so that our crews can respond more quickly to patients in the community and save more lives."
Last year, West Midlands Ambulance Service crews lost 41,000 hours waiting outside hospitals - the worst level of hospital handover delays in the UK .
So far in January, the ambulance service says they have already lost nearly 12,000 hours of ambulance time in handover delays across the region.
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