Man's 'degrading' three-hour ambulance wait with broken leg - BBC News

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A 71-year-old man with blood cancer was forced to lie on his porch with a broken leg for three hours while he waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Dave Kilgallon fell at his home in Batley, West Yorkshire, on Wednesday at about 17:00 BST, and waited until after 20:00 for medics to arrive.

Mr Kilgallon, who is still receiving treatment, called the wait "degrading".

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said it received the call during a "particularly busy period" of the day.

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His family said they were instructed over the phone to leave Mr Kilgallon where he was, with heavy rain falling during the wait.

Mr Kilgallon said: "I'd like the [NHS trust directors] to get off their bottoms, lie down in their doorways and see if they can put up with it.

"Then they could answer the question, 'is this acceptable?'"

His son, Martin Kilgallon, said: "He's got myeloma and his chemotherapy causes him to have brittle bones.

"As he turned to go back in the house his leg has just snapped clean and he's fallen onto the threshold of the house, the bottom half of his body was outside and the top half inside."

Martin Kilgallon, who said the paramedics were excellent once they did arrive, added: "Their excuse is that they were busy, but we keep hearing this excuse.

"If they keep being busy, why aren't they changing the system to cope with it, because 'busy' is going to happen."

His father, who is recovering at Leeds General Infirmary, added: "It's degrading in my opinion, especially when you don't think you should be lying there for three hours."

A Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust spokesperson said: "During the last few weeks the urgent and emergency care system has come under increasing pressure.

"We can confirm that this emergency call was received during a particularly busy period on Wednesday and we were doing our best to reach all patients who needed our assistance as quickly as possible.

"We wish this patient well in their recovery and would like to reassure members of the public that our priority is to provide a safe, responsive and high quality service to the people of Yorkshire."