Apology over woman's ambulance wait

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust apologised for Ms Matthews' wait

A woman who broke her ankle after she came off her electric bike waited one and a half hours lying on a pavement before an ambulance arrived.

Rachel Matthews, from Saltash, called 999 at about 20:00 BST on Monday after the incident.

She waited for one and a half hours before the ambulance arrived and was later taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where she said she was transferred to another ambulance as there was a backlog of patients.

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) apologised for Ms Matthews' wait and said there had been an "increased demand" on services they had not experienced since Christmas 2022 due to the extreme heat.

Ms Matthews said her leg was "twisted around under the bike" and her "ankle was totally facing the wrong way".

She said: "After about an hour I started going into shock and then after another hour the ambulance came.

"I suffer with anxiety and I honestly thought it was never going to come.

"There were a lot of people that stopped and helped and gave me blankets to keep warm because the sun was going down."

Talking about the wait, she added: "It was a long time but obviously I don't want to say anything bad about them [ambulance staff] because they got there as soon as they could.

"The amount of pressures and struggles they're under, you don't really see it until you're here. They're doing an amazing job but they need some help from somewhere."

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which runs Derriford Hospital, said it had a "relentless focus on getting patients to the right place at the right time".

A spokesperson said they could not comment on individual cases, but were "sorry to hear about the patient's experience".

The Department for Health and Social Care said: “No one should have to wait longer than necessary to access urgent and emergency care, and while waiting times have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December, we know there is still more to do."