A man who had broken his hip was taken to hospital strapped to a plank in the back of a van after his granddaughter was told no ambulances were available.
Nicole Lea found Melvyn Ryan behind the door of his home after he pressed an emergency call button around his neck.
When she got there she discovered the 89-year-old also had a broken shoulder.
She said she went to grandfather-of-eight Mr Ryan's home, in Cwmbran, Torfaen, after being contacted just after midnight on Friday.
She said: "I didn't waste any time in calling 999 and gave them my details. And they turned around and said they were unable to send anyone, there wasn't any help to send and that I'd have to find a way of getting him there myself."
The call handler advised her to call the out-of-hours GP before saying she had to go to deal with other calls.
She did not call the GP as she thought it would be a waste of time.
"With my partner and my mum's help we managed to come up with the idea of getting him onto a plank of wood and into the back of my partner's van to get him up to hospital," Ms Lea said.
"Mr Ryan has had what sounds like the most appalling of experience," said Dr Iona Collins, chairwoman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Cymru.
"How must the ambulance service feel when they are getting calls like this? Obvious its an emergency and they need help and they are unable to help," she told Radio Wales Breakfast.
Source: BBC News, 12 December 2022
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