A 92-YEAR-OLD man waited seven hours for an ambulance to take him to hospital with a suspected broken hip.

An ambulance was called for Alan Cleminson at 5pm last Wednesday but it did not arrive at his nursing home until 12.15am.

His son Bob and Holcroft Grange nursing home in Culcheth both contacted the North West Ambulance Service during the long wait and were told that the service did not have enough resources to come any quicker.

Bob, 62, of Culcheth Hall Farm, said: “I lived in Africa for three years and I would have got better service out there. No doubt ambulance people prioritise things but is it any more serious than a potential broken hip?

“The ambulance guys were doing their best but they haven’t got enough resources to go around.”

Alan’s ordeal began in the afternoon when he suffered hip problems after a fall at the nursing home.

Staff there contacted a doctor who said he needed an x-ray and would call an ambulance to take him to Warrington Hospital straight away.

That was at 5pm and the home was told the ambulance would arrive within the hour so staff got Alan ready for its arrival.

“He was still in a lot of discomfort just sitting in the nursing home reception waiting for an ambulance to get him,” said Bob, who was waiting for the call to say the ambulance had arrived so he could meet his father at hospital.

At 8pm he called the home to see what had happened and was told they were still waiting for paramedics to arrive.

He said: “The nursing home rang the ambulance service and they said ‘we have got a lot of urgent cases and we do not have the resources to come out and collect him’.

“We accepted it at that point and they said they would be there shortly.

“By 11pm the poor lad was still sat there. He’d been sat there since 5pm with a blanket round him waiting for the ambulance.”

At this point Bob called the ambulance service to ask what was going on.

“They said we know he’s not been collected,it’s absolutely disgraceful and we do not blame you for getting irate about it but we do not have anyone to go and get him.”

Bob asked to make a complaint and they said someone from the complaints department would contact him the following day on Thursday. Then at 12.15am the ambulance finally arrived.

Bob added: “Dad tried his best to smile and joke his way through it, but that’s what sort of guy he is.”

Alan is now back at his nursing home recovering from his injury.

But, to add insult to injury, Bob then had to wait five days before anyone from the North West Ambulance Service contacted him to tell him how to complain.

A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust: “Due to the high volume of emergency and GP request calls the service were responding to on that day, there was a significant delay in arranging transportation for the patient.

“NWAS appreciates that waiting for an ambulance can be a distressing experience and offers its sincerest apologies to the patient and his family.

“The North West Ambulance Service aims to respond to all calls in the shortest time possible and has a prioritisation system to ensure resources are allocated to incidents with the greatest clinical need.

“While NWAS fully accepts it exceeded an acceptable response time to get to the patient, at the time the call was made, the service was experiencing a much higher number of GP request calls of a similar nature combined with a high number of emergency calls.

“The Trust has received a formal complaint and has been in touch with the family.”