A FOREST landlady says action must be taken to improve ambulance response times after a customer suffered a stroke and waited 90 minutes for help.

Sharon Hookings, of the Red Hart Inn at Blaisdon, called 999 last Thursday night (October 6) after the man collapsed in the car park.

Mrs Hookings said two retired doctors in the village attended the scene before the paramedics.

She said: “We were told that a man appeared drunk and was stumbling around in the car park. My husband Rakesh (Kaushik) went out and found the gentleman, in his late 50s, collapsed and appearing to have had a stroke. 

“Rakesh and another customer waited in the car park with the patient until around 9pm when a response car came, closely followed by an ambulance.

“During my original telephone call I told the operator that the man was struggling to breathe, and that I didn’t believe he was drunk. He was foaming at the mouth but I didn’t think he was having an epileptic episode.

“I believe the ambulance took so long because they were called to a pub and assumed the patient was a drunk. We telephoned 999 a further two times over the next hour and half, each time we were told the service was busy and on its way.

“It was a cold night and the man was unable to express himself, gasping for breath and frightened. We think he had been there for up to 30 minutes before Rakesh found him. The gentleman has been transferred to Southmead Hospital in a critical condition.

“Something needs to be done about the ambulance service in our rural areas. Next time it could be you, or one of your loved ones, lying helpless by the roadside.”

This is the second incident in the space of a month the Review has been informed of patients waiting hours for emergency services. Carer Elizabeth Smith, who works for QCare, said one of her elderly patients waited six hours for paramedics after he fell in his home.

A South Western Ambulance Service spokesman said: “South Western Ambulance Service strongly refutes any suggestion that responses to patients are based on anything other than clinical need. The trust is aware of this incident and is carrying out an investigation.”

South Western Ambulance Service says it has seen around 113 more calls made to them every day and 470 extra compared to 2011.