72-year-old woman forced to wait 13 HOURS in ambulance - but pledges to support strikers

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An ambulance was called to their home early on a Sunday afternoon after Kathleen Philipson, who has COPD and had Covid, developed a rapid heartbeat . She waited 13 hours in front of the hospital

Kathleen Philipson spent 13 hours stuck in an ambulance

Daran Philipson's 72-year-old mother, Kathleen, spent a miserable 13 hours stuck in an ambulance on the forecourt of a hospital as the crew waited to hand her over to doctors.

He and his mother remain fully behind the strikes - otherwise the government simply won't listen, he says.

"We started waiting in the ambulance as a priority patient, but in the end we felt completely and completely forgotten," said Daran, 45, a transportation administrator who lives with his family. mother in Solihull and traveled with her to hospital that day. .

"The staff did everything they could to look after my mother, but it is not their job to care for patients for long periods of time. There were no nurses available because they were already taking care of so many people in the hospital.

Daran Philipson with his mother Kathleen

"The team told me that the hospital could not cope with the sheer volume of emergency calls in addition to people struggling to see their GP."

An ambulance was called to their home early on a Sunday afternoon after Kathleen, who has COPD and had Covid, developed a rapid heartbeat.

Daran said, "She tested positive for Covid a few weeks before, and we had seen a doctor who said she would be better off at home unless her breathing got worse."

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Initially he called 111 who answered a few questions and arranged for an ambulance to take Kathleen to nearby Heartlands Hospital.

The ambulance arrived at their home within an hour and they arrived at Heartlands Hospital 20 minutes later - but then spent the next 13 hours waiting in the forecourt.

Kathleen was unable to lie down due to a curvature in her spine, so she was confined to a chair.