Woman, 88, had to wait over three hours for ambulance

AN ELDERLY woman who injured herself after she slipped and fell in Crazies Hill had to wait almost three and a half hours for an ambulance.

She had been walking from a meeting of the Cockpole Green Women’s Institute at the village hall on Wednesday last week when she fell in wet conditions and had to wait for help to arrive.

The woman, 88, fell and fractured her hip after falling hard on the tarmac in the main road through Crazies Hill and was partially in the road.

An ambulance was called at 5.02pm and triaged as category 3, deeming it as urgent but not immediately life-threatening.

Residents were informed the wait time could be up to six hours.

At 8pm, paramedics reassessed the incident and it was upgraded to a category 2 response for a potentially serious condition requiring more urgent assessment.

An ambulance did not arrive until 8.23pm.

She was placed on a stretcher before being taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading where she has since received treatment.

A member of the village Women’s Institute praised the community’s effort to care for her in that time after “more than a dozen” cars stopped to offer assistance and keep her warm.

Villagers provided the woman with a horse blanket and she was helped on to a mat taken from the boot of somebody’s car and given a Russian-style fur hat and gloves as temperatures dropped below 6C.

Villagers came back with hot-water bottles, cushions, extension cables for hairdryers and a heat lamp to make her comfortable.

The member, who does not wish to be named, said: “It was amazing how many people stopped. So many cars stopped. It could have been more than 14.

“We were all shocked. Residents up at Cayton Park were just amazing. Even a doctor appeared and stayed with her all the time with a baby because she was on maternity leave.

“We were told not to move her so we didn’t. There were four of five people from the [Wargrave] Women’s Institute there so it was totally amazing.

“I went to a neighbour and got a hat but the Russian one was far warmer and we got hot-water bottles to put underneath her and made sure she had my gloves on.

“I feel very proud to live in this village. It’s very caring with a capital C.”

The villager said she felt “very cross” at the ambulance wait time. She said: “Between 6pm and 6.30pm we were told it was on its way.

“We [gave them] the postcode to the hall but somehow they wanted the postcode to the school and we didn’t have it.

“There had been some cock-up. They came just before 8.30pm and kept saying ‘they’re coming, they’re coming’.”

Another member of the Women’s Institute, who was at the scene, said: ”Eventually, after numerous calls to the ambulance service some very caring ambulance men arrived over three hours after the initial 999 call.

“They gently excavated their way through all the blankets [and supplies] and conveyed her to the waiting ambulance.

“Everyone concerned was appalled that an 88-year-old lady was left in the road in freezing conditions. She fell hard on the tarmac.

“One of our ladies carefully put a car mat under her. [It was] an incredibly cold evening. There were so many Good Samaritans in Crazies Hill. As the temperature dropped alarmingly, she was made cosier than those of us who were on our feet.”

A spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service said: “We are sorry the patient had to wait in discomfort before and ambulance could arrive. The initial 999 call was received at 5.02pm and triaged as a category 3 call.

“At the time, there was high demand in the local area and a need to clinically prioritise other patients. The call was reassessed at 8pm and upgraded to a category 2 with an ambulance arriving at 8.23pm.”