Woman who broke hip waited 12 hours for ambulance as new data reveals 'postcode lottery'

AN 80-YEAR-OLD woman with a broken hip was left waiting for 12 hours for an ambulance last year as new data shows emergency response times in Wales are a “postcode lottery”.

- ELLA KIPLING

Terena O'Brien fell and broke her hip while crossing a road in Port Talbot. She was taken to a local hotel, where she waited for more than 12 hours on a sofa in the lobby, her son Tony said.

He said hotel guests and wedding attendees were walking by as she waited, despite multiple calls from the hotel’s manager and a family member to the emergency services.

Tony said: “This happened at about 8pm and the ambulance arrived at 8am, then she was kept a further two hours in the ambulance outside the A&E department.

“Luckily the hotel was brilliant and couldn't do enough to try and make her comfortable.”

The fall, plus the wait time and her operation, had an impact on her dementia, he claimed.

Terena's is not the only case as new data shows emergency wait times vary across the country.

Across Wales, ambulance response times increased by almost an hour on average last year for serious calls.

The data also showed wait times for people in life-threatening situations varying by two and a half hours depending on which area they live in.

A freedom of information request found that in 2024, Welsh Ambulances took 48 minutes longer to attend to amber calls, classified as “serious” and “life-threatening”, than the previous year. In some areas, like Powys, ambulances took on average one hour and 43 minutes to respond, while in Neath Port Talbot it was four hours and 22 minutes.

Average response times for “red” cases - classed as “immediately life-threatening” - remained under 15 minutes across all health boards last year. Earlier this year, new categories were introduced with a “purple arrest” category for those in cardiac and respiratory arrest, which aims to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in Wales. They currently stand at less than 5% of calls.