This is the shocking image that shows an 83-year-old dementia sufferer huddled under an umbrella as she waited for three hours for an ambulance.
Widow Hazel Baines, from Grantham, slipped over on the pavement as she walked home in pouring rain and broke her leg.
Passers-by rushed to help her and rang 999 before putting her on a garden chair and held an umbrella over her head to protect her from the rain.
But an emergency call handler failed to send an ambulance and advised her to get a taxi to the hospital – which was 25 miles away – because they were busy.
Hazel Baines, from Grantham, slipped over on the pavement as she walked home in pouring rain. Passers-by rushed to help her and sat her on a garden chair and held an umbrella over her head to protect her from the rain while they waited three hours for an ambulance
A local taxi firm said they were unable to take her to hospital – 25 miles away as her local AE unit undergoes a temporary overnight closure – because they didn’t have the relevant insurance.
An ambulance was called for a second time but it did not arrive until nearly three hours after her slipping over.
Witness Jamie Mudie, 26, who ran to help after hearing her cry in pain, posted the shocking images on Facebook.
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He said: ‘I ran over and helped her up but she was too frail to move inside so I called 999 and told them to send an ambulance.
‘The lady said she didn’t want an ambulance but I thought she needed one. I told the operator this and they said it didn’t sound like an emergency.
‘They recommended I call her a taxi. It was pretty obvious the lady didn’t really know too much about what was going on.’
Mr Mudie added: ‘I called a taxi firm and explained the situation but they said they wouldn’t send a cab because they weren’t insured so I called 999 again and they said they would send one out.
An emergency call handler deemed the injury as non-threatening because the widow was alert, sat down and didn’t want an ambulance
‘The rain was really coming down so another neighbour wrapped the lady in a blanket and I put an umbrella over her because we thought an ambulance would arrive very soon.
‘The poor woman was freezing cold and very upset by this point. It was really hard to watch.
‘It’s disgusting having to wait three hours for an ambulance because some bigwigs decided to shut AE.’
Mrs Baines, who has lived alone since her husband died 16 years ago, fell over in the rain last Thursday at around 5pm.
Her screams of pain alerted passers-by who rushed to her side and informed the emergency services.
They managed to find her a chair to sit on while giving her an umbrella to protect her from the downpour.
A 999 call handler reported it as a non-threatening injury because Ms Baines was alert, sat in a chair and didn’t want an ambulance.
They advised her to get a taxi to take her to hospital – but a local taxi firm said they didn’t have the correct insurance to take vulnerable people to hospital.
The paramedic on route was therefore stood down and made available for a new 999 call.
Helpers rang again just 30 minutes later and reported the hip injury – sparking the ambulance service to send out a vehicle.
At around 7.15pm a paramedic car arrived and they checked her over but it was another 20 minutes before she was finally taken to hospital.
When the ambulance arrived, she was forced to wait another two hours because the AE department was backed-up with other emergency vehicles.
Mrs Baines was finally admitted to hospital at midnight – seven hours after her fall – where she was diagnosed with a broken left femur.
Her son, Nigel, 54, expressed his anger at the treatment by East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS).
He said: ‘I am sadly shocked, but not surprised. I know she would have told people she is not in pain, but she would have been in terrible pain.
‘It is very painful for me to think that the health service let her down so badly.
‘How anyone can expect an elderly dementia sufferer who has broken a bone in their leg to climb into a taxi and travel an hour away to a hospital is simply wrong.
Mrs Baines’ local AE department at Grantham and District Hospital has a temporary overnight closure in place due to a ‘severe shortage of doctors’
‘I am a disgusted she has had to endure that really. She had to sit in an ambulance for two hours in a queue before she could be seen and that is after the wait.
‘But the care of the ambulance staff and the front line staff was absolutely fantastic.’
She is now recovering following her operation but her family say her mental condition appears to have taken a turn for the worse.
It is unlikely she will be allowed to go back home because of her dementia, they say.
A spokesperson for EMAS said the first 999 call was received at twenty to six and a fast response car was sent out.
However, because Ms Baines did not want an ambulance sending, the paramedic was originally stood down.
They say a second call was made just after 6pm which then took the ambulance an hour and 52 minutes to get to the patient.
NHS IN MELTDOWN
Further evidence the NHS is in meltdown emerged in August as figures revealed AE waiting times have soared and emergency staffing has reached crisis levels.
Nearly 15 per cent of people in larger AE departments and one in ten patients in all hospitals are not being treated within four hours, according to statistics for June.
Waiting-times for planned operations, ambulance response times and delayed discharge targets were also missed.
This June was recorded as the busiest since current NHS records began.
Hospitals saw an increase in the number of patients attending AE in England, with 1,951,000 people treated. This was a 2.1 per cent increase on June 2015.
Emergency admissions were also up year on year, rising 4.7 per cent to 480,210.
Dr Bob Winter, medical director at EMAS, said: ‘In this case, the initial 999 call reported a non-life threatening injury, confirming the patient was alert, sat in a chair and did not want an ambulance sending.
‘The paramedic already en route was therefore stood down and made available for a new 999 call.
‘A new 999 call over half an hour later reported a hip injury and we aimed to get an ambulance to the patient within 30 minutes.
‘Sadly, due to high demand and lack of available resource there was a delay for which I am sorry, particularly given the discomfort the patient would have experienced as a result of her injury.’
He also said they are doing everything they can to improve the service by trying to recruit 300 more frontline staff and investing in new ambulances.
‘Significant peaks in 999 and hospital demand bring real challenges and there are occasions when we are not able to get to people as quickly as we want or need to.
‘Sadly, due to high demand and lack of available resource there was a delay for which I am sorry, particularly given the discomfort the patient would have experienced as a result of her injury.’
The news comes after growing anger in regards to the overnight closure of the AE department at Grantham and District Hospital in August.
For three months, the section will be open from 9am-6.30pm as bosses look to recruit more doctors to manage a staffing crisis.
But there are growing concerns that it will not re-open to a full-time service.
Last month EMAS revealed it was taking an average of seven patients a night to other hospitals following the closure of AE in Grantham.
Mr Bains said the decision to close it was a ‘disaster’ and that his mother’s experience proves the health system cannot cope.