Grandad, 91, from Cardiff 'screaming and crying in pain' told of 18 hour wait for ambulance

A grandfather who broke his hip after a fall in his garden was expected to wait around 18 hours for an ambulance to arrive, his family have claimed.

Peter Ballard, 91, from Cardiff, fell in his garden and his daughter said an ambulance was called at around 5pm on Saturday 5 August.

Despite several follow-up calls, nine hours later, Mr Ballard remained at home “screaming and crying in pain” until his family decided to take matters into their own hands and transport him to hospital themselves.

His daughter Susan Mahoney said that the treatment they received that night was “disgraceful.”

She said: “On Saturday he had a fall in the garden and he broke his hip. He has one of those buttons around his neck, so he pressed the button and they rang me…So I went to my father’s house and he was on the grass in the garden.”

Susan said an ambulance was then called and the family was advised not to move him.

However, as it was raining, they said Mr Ballard was “soaking wet”, so the family decided to move him inside.

Susan added: “There was nothing at all we could do, in the end, it took two of them to get him in, as he was so stiff because his hip was broken and [he was lying] in one position.”

Around 2am, Susan claimed the Welsh Ambulance Service (WAS) told them a paramedic would come to provide pain relief before an ambulance could arrive. The family claimed they called back an hour later and still had no idea when help (a paramedic or ambulance) would arrive.

Susan said: “[He was] screaming ‘help me, help me’, and we couldn’t do anything. He was getting delirious and sick."

She then decided to take matters into her own hands.

“I went down the road to my neighbour,” said Susan. She added that they helped her get Mr Ballard into the car to take him to the University Hospital of Wales at 2.45am.

They found out he had a broken hip within an hour of being there, the family claimed.

At around 4.45am, the family received a call from the WAS saying that an ambulance would be at least another seven hours - meaning one would not have theoretically arrived until at least 18 hours after the initial call.

They then informed the call handler that they were in the hospital, and claimed they were told that they shouldn’t have moved him.

Susan said Peter, who was a steelworker for 47 years and was still a doorman at a local club at 80 years old, was still “brilliant” on his feet for his age, but “must have lost his balance" when he fell in the garden.

She added that she found seeing her dad in pain “heartbreaking” to watch and “frustrating” that he was left for so long.

Mr Ballard remains in hospital following the incident on Saturday 5 August.

Darren Panniers, the WAS’s head of service in South East Wales, said: “We would like to extend our apologies to Mr Ballard and his family for their experience, as this is not the level of service we want to provide.

"We will always respond to the sickest patients first, which unfortunately means that any patient whose condition is not immediately life-threatening, may wait longer for our help.

“This regrettably was the case with Mr Ballard, as on the day in question all our Cardiff and Vale resources were already committed to other calls, either in the community or at hospital.

"We continue to work with partners across Wales, this includes the Local Health Boards and Welsh Government to mitigate the wider system pressures faced within the health and social care system.

"The public can help us by using our services wisely, only calling 999 in a serious or life-threatening emergency, and if safe to do so, finding alternative transport to hospital.

"If it’s not an emergency, NHS 111 Wales is available 24/7. We would invite Mr Ballard’s family to contact us directly if they would like to discuss their experience in more detail.”

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