A WOMAN whose 90-year-old Monmouth mother suffered a fractured hip in a fall says it took over 32 hours and six 999 calls before an ambulance finally arrived to take her to hospital.

It comes as the Welsh Government downgraded the performance of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s emergency service at the Grange Hospital, requiring ‘direct intervention’.

Alison Morgan, whose mum Iris suffered fell at her Wyesham home around 3.30pm on December 7, said: “After 32 and half hours we eventually got an ambulance. This was after six 999 calls, all with varying timescales.

“They kept saying they were very busy so couldn't give me a definitive answer. The last lady I spoke to was very rude – she said if I stopped speaking she would tell me why they couldn't give me a time, but I'd already heard that every time I rang and was getting desperate.

“No first responder at any stage and no fall response team, even though I kept asking. I also know definitively there was no call to a first responder, as someone who does that in Monmouth has told me.”

She emailed Monmouthshire MP Catherine Fookes next morning, and her office tried to get hold of the Ambulance Service CEO and also called 999, while also checking back for updates with the family.

The Ambulance Service finally phoned Alison back, “asking the same questions”, said Alison, and later that day asked her to do a video- link triage on her mother, who was becoming “delirious” and was unable to move on a sofa, where they “diagnosed a dislocated knee”.

Alison added: “The ambulance eventually arrived just after midnight, and they were wonderful, and so lovely with Mum and myself.

“When they asked when she’d fallen and I said 3.30pm they thought I meant yesterday, and when I explained it was actually the day before, they couldn’t believe it.”

Her mother then waited in the ambulance “outside the Grange all night” waiting to be seen by doctors, before finally being admitted and diagnosed with a broken hip, needing an operation, and an infection, before later being transferred to Neville Hall Hospital, where she is still recovering.

Alison is making a complaint to the ambulance service, and many people posted their shock and sympathy online, saying it was “heartbreaking”, “terrible”, “awful” and an “absolute disgrace”.

Others called for the reopening of the former A&E department at Abergavenny’s Neville Hall, which the Grange replaced five years ago, saying the latter couldn’t cope with demand.

One poster said: “Closing A&E at Nevill Hall and the Royal Gwent and centralising A&E at the Grange has been a disaster.”

A spokesperson for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We are very sorry to hear about Ms Morgan’s experience and the long unacceptable wait on an ambulance her mother experienced earlier this month.

“We urge the family to contact us directly so we can discuss her care and concerns.”

They said they had seen “a significant improvement in the last few months” on handover times, but extreme pressures caused by flu and other winter viruses had recently impacted services.