Fire crews rescue 83-year-old after ambulance delay

Betsy Hulme is recovering in hospital after the ordeal, her son said

An ex-ambulance technician has branded emergency response times as “absolutely disgusting” after his elderly mother faced a seven-hour wait for an ambulance, he says.

In the end it was firefighters who stepped in to rescue Steve Hulme's 83-year-old mother Betsy after she broke her hip in a fall in her garden, in Leek last week.

Mr Hulme called on them for help after he said an ambulance telephonist also told him the service had lost its contract for first responders.

West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said that at the time it was experiencing long handover delays, equating to 13 ambulances off the road in Staffordshire.

Steve Hulme worked for the ambulance service for 17 years

Mr Hulme was forced to drive to a nearby fire station to get help, on 26 March, after Mrs Hulme had been lying for three hours on cold concrete slabs while soaked in water.

Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke, Mr Hulme said: “It’s absolutely disgusting. It’s opened my eyes if I’m honest.”

Firefighters helped lift Mrs Hulme into her son’s car before he drove her to Macclesfield hospital.

Just a week before the fall, Mrs Hulme had been discharged from hospital after having surgery on her left leg.

When Mr Hulme requested the first responder, he claims he was told “we no longer have them – we lost the contract”.

Firefighters came to the rescue to help the pensioner three-hours into her wait for an ambulance

“I’m so grateful to the fire service for what they’ve done, but really it isn’t their job," Mr Hulme continued.

“If the ambulance service can’t cope with this then something needs to be done and quickly.”

He worked as an ambulance technician from 1983-2000 then left to explore a different career in the emergency services.

“I can never ever remember in my time working as a technician going to someone and saying, 'I’m sorry it’s taken us twelve hours to get here',” he said.

“It was never anywhere near those ridiculous times – something has gone drastically wrong.”

Mr Hulme has now submitted a complaint online but said he has yet to hear from the ambulance service.

Issuing an apology to the family, a WMAS said the call had been triaged as a Category 3, an urgent but not life-threatening situation.

"Due to the handover delays, we alerted the caller that it could be several hours before we would arrive," a spokesperson said.

"We do this based on feedback from serious incidents, patient feedback and comment from groups such as Healthwatch."

A Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said although it had a specially trained falls team, those involved on this occasion were not part of that.

It said the specialist team could be deployed when a patient might just need help to get to their feet or a chair, and a check to ensure they are safe and well.

"Calls still come via 999 and NHS 111, who will make the initial triage, and then assign our falls team to those patients who aren’t injured but just need some assistance, to help relieve pressure on the ambulance service," it said.

"The team has received bespoke training, use specialist equipment and look to resolve any immediate problems that might have caused the fall.

“The team has been in place since December 2022 and during that time they have assisted over 1,000 fallen patients.”