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news
Credit: North West Ambulance Service Elderly cyclist left on roadside for nearly three hours waiting for ambulance
An elderly cyclist was left on the side of the road for almost three hours waiting for an ambulance after he fell off his bike.
Passers-by called 999 at 4.43pm on Thursday, September 9 after the man had fallen from his bicycle in Alsager town centre.
But paramedics did not arrive to treat the casualty - at the junction of Crewe Road and Hall Drive - until 7.35pm, 172 minutes later.
He was eventually taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital for further treatment, Stoke on Trent Live reports.
North West Ambulance Service has blamed the delay on an 'extremely high level of demand'.
An ambulance service spokesman said: "The ambulance service is currently experiencing an extremely high level of demand. We always prioritise life-threatening emergencies and the most seriously injured patients first; unfortunately, this means some patients are waiting longer than we would like.
"We received a 999 call at 4.43pm reporting a person had fallen from their bike on Crewe Road, Alsager. At the time of this particular call, we had nearly 180 calls waiting in the Cheshire and Merseyside region alone.
"We were able to get an ambulance to the scene at 7.35pm and the patient was taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital.
“We wish him a full and speedy recovery. If he has any further concerns, we urge him to contact our patient safety team.”
However, local councillors said that this was the second time the ambulance service had apparently been overwhelmed in recent weeks and said the wait time was 'totally unacceptable'.
Councillor June Buckley said: "It is the second time this has happened in Alsager. An elderly friend of mine fell down and broke her pelvis the other week and she was even longer on the floor waiting for an ambulance. It’s not like it’s a minor injury. They are quite severe injuries.
"There were a lot of police cars and it caused quite a bit of commotion. I think the ambulance service should be looking into it...
"It is totally unacceptable."
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 0 sec ago
But... the last is only not the case with drivers on normal roads because driving on the cycle path / footway / rolling a vehicle up there is seen...
- stonojnr 5 min 31 sec ago
Or the ones whose combo of super bright side/driving lights makes them assume they don't need headlights on at all.
- wtjs 6 min 28 sec ago
YOU'VE RUINED MY LIFE! WHAT FOR?!...
- mdavidford 38 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
- chrisonabike 1 hour 2 min ago
Thanks. I guess the question is "need". If the road is busy, it sounds like it is a desired route between places? In which case (given this an...
- mdavidford 1 hour 10 min ago
Don't know what you mean. I thought my suggestion was entirely practical.
- mdavidford 1 hour 13 min ago
...and a square of faux sheepskin for the back of your saddle.
- Rapha Nadal 1 hour 45 min ago
I'd buy a motorbike fo rthat kind of money!
Add new comment
9 comments
I recently had a similar experience with a better outcome.
I came off the bike in Cheshire about 12 miles away from the incident reported in the article.
I had a fairly obvious broken collarbone. A young lady stopped and called for an ambulance, then stayed with me to make sure I was OK
After 45 minutes nothing had turned up so she phoned her dad who took care of my bike, tthen drove me to the hospital in her car.
It restored my faith in human nature.
That could have turned out quite different for you.
Reminds me of a story i heard a few years back about a gentleman who had been mugged for his bike down the Tottenham Marshes.
A group of people pushed him off his bike which caused a fractured pelvis when he hit the ground. stole his bike but left his phone because it was so old it wasnt worth anything...
Tried calling 999 - the call handler wouldnt send out an ambulance or police patrol to pick him up because it wasnt an emergency or they had tried but they couldnt find him because he was off-road, advised him to call 101. Nobody answered the phone on 101 but a passerby saw him lying on the floor and flagged down a passing police patrol who refused to help him because they said it should be the responsibility of an ambulance crew to help him as they werent trained to and thus refused to drop him to a hospital. By this time he had been lying on the ground and waiting for an ambulance some 3-4hrs.
Eventually some passersby made a group effort and lifted him up the steps/ramp that lead to the main road where he called a cab home. when he arrived home he tried calling 999 for an ambulance again. call handler denied his request as his condition clearly wasnt life threatening and refused to re-route a police patrol to take him to hospital.
He had to call an uber to take him to his nearest A&E which happened another 3hrs later.
Mr plod later found his bike dumped not far from where they stole it off him. Aparently it wasnt a very good bike so they dumped it in a bush and walked off.
That's an appalling tale; a complete lack of duty of care on the part of the emergency services who should be ashamed.
Reminds me of a story I heard from Big Dave down the pub about a friend of a friend of his uncle. I'm always wary of believing such stories, no matter how entertaining.
It was actually on the BBC and also an article in the daily telegraph. I will try to dig it up just for you.
BBC News report here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJYwOxZsKY
Ambulance wouldn't come but the police did and he was waiting 20-25 mins before getting the taxi according to his own words. So some mis-remembered details by Roubaix in his recounting it seems. Or it is a totally different person in that report being as Roubiax's is a fractured pelvis and this one is a fractured shin. In which case the Ambulance services definitely need to book up their ideas in London when attending call outs to Tottenham Hale.
There's a differnece between "a story I heard" and "a story I heard on the BBC and reported in the Telegraph". The former puts me in mind of the fictional "story Big Dave down the pub told me", the latter says it might be genuine and I might be able to verify it.