Ambulance waits: 'Can you please tell them to hurry up or I shall be dead'

Delays unloading ambulances at busy hospitals are causing serious harm to patients, a safety watchdog is warning.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch has been investigating how the long waits are delaying 999 emergency response times across England.

Kenneth Shadbolt, 94, waited more than five hours for an ambulance after a bad fall - an accident that proved fatal.

Logs show that in his final 999 call he asked: "Can you please tell them to hurry up or I shall be dead."

Ken Shadbolt had been in good shape for his age. On the night of Wednesday, 23 March 2022, just before 03:00, he got out of bed to go the bathroom and fell, hitting a wardrobe before collapsing on the floor.

He had hurt his hip - how badly he didn't know - and couldn't get up. He could reach his mobile on his bedside, though, and dialled 999 for help.

The BBC has seen transcripts of the three separate phone calls he made to South Western Ambulance Service that night.

The first was short and factual, covering the basic details of his injury. 

He seemed calm and lucid but made clear he was in pain and needed an ambulance. Internal call logs seen by the BBC show that at this point Ken was triaged as a category two emergency, meaning paramedics should arrive in 18 minutes, on average.

About 15 minutes later, Ken called 999 for a second time.

An internal ambulance service log seen by the BBC shows that South Western Ambulance Service was indeed busy that night.

It talks about "high demand" in the Gloucester area, with more than 60 patients waiting for help, some for more than eight hours.

Another hour passed before Ken made his third and final call to 999.

It was clear now that he was in serious pain. He felt "terrible sick" and said his "breathing is going too".

"I need an ambulance because I'm going to fade away quite quickly," he said.

The same reply came back: "The ambulance service is just under a lot of pressure at the moment... we are doing our best."

An ambulance finally got to Kenneth Shadbolt's house at 08:10 that morning, four hours after that final call.

Ken died at 14:21 that afternoon, with the cause of death given as a "very large subdural haematoma" or bleed on the brain.

His son Jerry Shadbolt said: "The doctors were saying his injuries were non-survivable but would they have been non-survivable if he'd arrived at hospital four hours earlier? I'd like an answer to that question.

"He was on his own and he knew he was on his own. He must have felt abandoned and alone on his bedroom floor. That's the most troubling part of it for me."

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Source: BBC News, 16 June 2022