Elderly woman waits four hours on bus station floor for ambulance

The woman, who is believed to be in her 80s, stumbled and hit her head at 4.45pm on Monday, October 21. Passersby called for help, but she was left lying on the cold concrete until an ambulance turned up at 8.50pm.

Stephen Bailey, a security guard for Lidl, heard about the incident on the shop-watch radio and attended to assist, before leaving her with three students from Andover College who were training in Emergency Services.

The elderly woman on the floor (Image: Stephen Bailey)

Stephen said: “I think it’s pretty disgusting, the ambulance service didn’t give care about her. She’s very frail; it’s just not acceptable.

“It was disgusting, the condition she was left in right in front of the bus station door, she was just lying on the floor.”

Stephen praised the students for their help as they stayed with the lady for four hours, wrapping her in blankets and their coats to keep her warm.

Stephen continued: “I was doing hourly checks on them. People were stepping around her, and they had a few kids giving them issues, taking the mick.”

The ambulance eventually arrived just before 9pm, however, a spokesperson said it was delayed due to the demand for its service.

A spokesperson for the South Central Ambulance Service said: “When we received the 999 call concerning this patient at 16:47, based on the information provided, it was triaged as a category 4 (lowest urgency) priority, which we would normally respond to within the national target time of under three hours.

“Unfortunately, at the time of the call, we already had four category 2 patients awaiting a response in the local area (these emergencies can include patients suffering a stroke, sepsis or other serious illnesses/injuries that require urgent assessment or treatment) along with 11 other patients triaged as category 3 or 4 calls already awaiting a response.

The elderly woman on the floor (Image: Stephen Bailey)

“Nurses and paramedics on our clinical support desk carried out welfare checks over the phone whilst the patient was waiting, but were informed her symptoms had not worsened and she was covered by blankets/duvets to keep warm.

“At 19:33, due to the length of time the patient had been waiting and the fact the patient was outside, the call was given a higher priority and the next available ambulance crew was sent at 20:07, arriving at 20:50.

“This meant that, unfortunately, the patient waited an hour longer than our target response time for such an emergency, but the delay was unavoidable due to patients in the local area with more serious emergencies requiring a higher priority response.”

The elderly woman was taken to hospital. Due to patient confidentiality, her condition is not known.