Image source, Graham AnthonyImage caption, Graham Anthony said he waited more than 10 hours alongside his mum as she lay on the floor before an ambulance could take her to hospital
ByCharlie Buckland, BBC Wales and Leigh Boobyer, BBC Wales- Published5 minutes ago
A 93-year-old woman had to lie on the floor for 10-and-a-half hours with broken bones while waiting for an ambulance.
Margaret Owen fell in her home on 4 October and her son Graham Anthony went over after getting a call from her lifeline alarm at 06:15.
He said an ambulance was called at 07:35, but a St John Ambulance worker only came at the request of the Welsh Ambulance Service at 15:30.
It was another 90 minutes until an ambulance came and took Margaret to hospital.
"Listening to her repeatedly asking for help and sometimes screaming in pain has left me with a feeling of hopelessness," said Graham.
Welsh Ambulance Service boss Lee Brooks said he was sorry to hear about Margaret's experience.
Anthony said his mum, from Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf, has dementia and struggled to remember exactly what happened.
"I don't know how long she was on the floor for before she activated the alarm," he said.
"She was obviously in clear distress on the floor... her right leg was immobilised, and she was complaining of pain in her right arm.
"It's just not good enough, is it?"
Image source, Graham AnthonyImage caption, Margaret Owen, pictured here in hospital, has dementia and struggles to remember all of what happened
Margaret suffered fractures to her femur and shoulder and needed surgery, but is yet to leave Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
While Anthony praised the professionalism of the ambulance crew who responded and said they dealt with his mum "really well", he admitted the experience "knocked my confidence in our health service's ability to respond".
According to the latest published figures, 10,977 patients waited 12 hours or more for an ambulance in August, 733 (6.3%) fewer than the previous month.
Anthony put a post on Facebook page sharing his mother's experience, saying the delay was not acceptable "for anyone, let alone a 93-year-old".
He said the response "has been huge", with hundreds of people sharing their experiences of elderly relatives going through similar waits for medical care.
The Welsh government said it recognised how distressing it could be to wait for care when someone has suffered an injury and that improving access to care was a "key priority".
It added that a new emergency and acute care policy framework would be published this autumn, setting out how plans to improve emergency community response and hospital flow.
Image source, Graham AnthonyImage caption, Margaret is yet to leave hospital, almost three weeks since falling in her home
"It's not a service, is it really? It's a huge systemic problem and nobody seems to be getting to grips with it," Anthony said.
"It's a terrible indictment on the health service and nobody seems to be getting to grips with it.
"There are far too many examples of similar injuries, similar waits," he said.
Anthony said he had submitted a formal complaint to the Welsh Ambulance Service and the Welsh government.
Brooks, the ambulance service's chief operating officer, said he was "grateful" to have the incident brought to his attention.
"Waiting almost eight hours for help is not the standard of service we want to provide," he added.
He said a preliminary review identified "aspects" of the way the call was managed that require further investigation and staff were looking "carefully" at what happened to understand if there were opportunities to respond differently.
In July 2025, NHS Wales re-categorised ambulance calls - purple for cardiac or respiratory arrest and red for major trauma and other emergencies where patients risk cardiac or respiratory arrest.
In December, three new categories were introduced - orange for serious conditions, yellow for people who need to be assessed and green for less urgent.
According to NHS activity and performance data for the past two months, the median ambulance response times for red calls was nine minutes and 32 seconds - missing the target of six to eight minutes.
The median response for purple calls was seven minutes and 31 seconds - within target.
For orange calls, the median response time increased to nearly one hour 30 minutes, up from about one hour.
The category's lengthiest response time period, since records began last December, was in January at one hour and 53 minutes.
Data on response times for yellow and green calls, and the response time target for orange calls, are not published publicly.
In September, the ambulance service received 11,868 orange calls, 5,492 yellow calls and 1,414 green calls.
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