I found an 80-year-old man on the road bleeding and with “serious head injuries”, but four hours later there was no ambulance

A businessman says he is “furious” that an elderly pedestrian, who was bleeding and appeared to have “serious head injuries” after falling into the road, had to be taken to hospital after waiting four hours for an ambulance to arrive. Jonathan Greatorex, owner of the popular Hand Hotel and Spa near Wrexham, said he went to provide first aid to a man in his 80s who collapsed on a country road near the hotel on Saturday.

Greatorex said he was surprised that the pedestrian had to wait four hours for an ambulance to arrive, which ended up taking his wife to the hospital. In response, the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAS) offered their “sincere apologies” to the injured pedestrian for what they said must have been a “distressing and traumatic” experience.

The following day, WAS declared an “emergency” in Wales due to delayed delivery to hospital, with the service urging people to only call 999 if the emergency was fatal or potentially fatal. You can read more about this story here.

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Welsh ambulance service declares “emergency incident”

Greatorex wrote in as he walked. As you can see in the photo, he suffered severe blood loss. I managed to stop the bleeding, called 999 and was told not to move it.

“After waiting THREE HOURS for an ambulance to arrive near the road, hypothermia set in and he lost consciousness. I took him home down the street, and when the ambulance didn’t arrive FOUR HOURS later, we managed to contact his wife, who took him to the hospital.

“Of course, if a trucking company can track its vehicles, so can they.” @Welsh Ambulance. The 999 team were excellent but were unable to give me any new information about where and when the ambulance would arrive. “This is simply unacceptable in rural communities like ours.”

Judith Bryce, assistant director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to the patient following what must have been a sad and traumatic incident. This is not a service we want to offer. We are working hard with our health board colleagues and the Welsh Government to find solutions to the current system-wide issues that are causing long waiting times for ambulances in the community, because we know we need to improve the experience of people across Wales.

“As winter approaches, the public can help protect our valuable resources for those who need us most by using 999 wisely and visiting NHS 111 Wales for health advice and information, or calling 111 if It is urgent, but not life-threatening. We encourage the patient to contact the Trust’s Putting Things Right team so that we can fully investigate the incident. “I would like to apologize again for the patient’s distress and wish him a speedy recovery.”