NHS Crisis: Cornwall pensioner left waiting in ambulance for 12 hours
Watch as Sam Blackledge reports on continued efforts to ease pressure on the region's hospitals
A pensioner from Cornwall has told ITV News of her experience in the county's struggling health service, saying she was once forced to wait in the back of an ambulance for 12 hours and repeatedly hospitalised despite feeling well enough to go home.
Brenda Kenyon, aged 70, from Truro, suffered a mental breakdown and memory loss.
She was treated at the Royal Cornwall Hospital - but says she stayed longer than she felt she needed to as her family could not care for her.
The county's health service declared a 'critical incident' on January 3 - the highest level of alert - for five days due to extreme pressure on services.
"A lot of it I don't remember," Brenda said.
"My granddaughter was left to cope and my daughter came over helping her out.
"Then it was 'phone the ambulance... phone the ambulance'.
"I was coming out of hospital and going back in. I was having to stay in hospital even though I felt I was ready to come out."
Brenda's story is typical of the problems in the region's health service.
She says she felt stuck in a loop - repeatedly hospitalised, feeling as if she was taking up space, but not able to live at home.
Speaking about her time in hospital, Brenda said: "Sometimes you didn't see anybody for hours. I wouldn't press my buzzer because I knew the thing was they were that busy. I knew I needed something, but I didn't know what."Eventually Brenda found Age UK, the 'Home from Hospital' system, and their care centre in Falmouth. She describes it as a lifeline.
"When I first came here I was six stone, very very skinny," she said.
"I couldn't move until my granddaughter came and took me home. And I came (to the centre) three days a week for quite a while.
"I seemed to get better with them helping look after me. Quizzes, things like that. And when my brain started ticking over, I started ticking over."
Lucy Downing, from Age UK, said: "We're able to get people home quicker because they've got the extra support.
"So they might be waiting for a care package but might not need the personal care element, so they can visit the hub during the day and then benefit from one of our community workers visiting them during a different part of the day so they have that all wraparound holistic care package."
Earlier this week, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has declared a critical incident due to increased pressure on its emergency department.
More than 300 people attended the hospital needing emergency treatment on Monday 6 January - almost two thirds of those were admitted as inpatients.
People accompanying patients have been asked not to enter the emergency department unless absolutely necessary.
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which runs Derriford, said it is seeing high numbers of older patients with respiratory problems exacerbated by the cold weather.
Dr Chris Reid, chief medical officer for NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board, said: "Over the last month, we have seen almost four times as many hospital inpatients with flu as we did a year ago.
"Calling a system critical incident allows us to stand down non-urgent work and focus on seeing more patients in our primary care hubs, getting people home from hospital and helping keep them from needing to be admitted.
"I want to thank all of our hardworking colleagues across the health and care system who work tirelessly all year round but are under particular pressure when our services are so busy."
In a statement, NHS Devon added: "A rise in cold weather illnesses, including flu, vomiting and diarrhoea bugs mean all of the county’s NHS services, including the main hospitals - in Plymouth, Exeter, Torbay and Barnstaple – are likely to remain under severe pressure all week.
"The region’s ambulance service has also been experiencing significant and sustained demand across its 999 services."