A NEWPORT family waited more than 18 hours for an ambulance to take their bed-bound 91-year-old mother to hospital.

After the family's doctor found Miren Mendieta was suffering from heart and kidney failure, she was booked in for treatment at the Royal Gwent Hospital, and an ambulance was called at around 4.30pm last Wednesday, January 29.

However, Mrs Mendieta's family were told there was a backlog of ambulances, and were left waiting until 11am the following morning.

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust said demand for ambulances was very high during this period, and priority was given to patients whose conditions were assessed to be life threatening.

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Mrs Mendieta's son-in-law Colin Bilbao said although they understood the stresses the NHS and ambulance service were under, the 18-hour wait was not acceptable.

“We had the doctor round last week and he took some blood,” said Mr Bilbao. “The results came back on Tuesday. It showed she had kidney and heart failure.

“Her surgery booked her in at the Royal Gwent straightaway. They wanted to start treatment as soon as possible.

“A bed had been made available and an ambulance was called around 4.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.

“We were told they would be between two and four hours as there was a backlog.

“They phoned two or three times to say it was being delayed because of the backlog, and the last time they called was about 3am (on Thursday morning).

“We are very supportive of the NHS, and understand the struggles they are under, but this was too long.

“We were just waiting with no real answer and no estimation and no update.

“My mother-in-law was breathless. She was struggling to breath as her lungs were filling up with fluid.

“Why couldn't they send the air ambulance or an ambulance from another service? It’s a four-mile trip from Glan Llyn [in Newport]to the Royal Gwent.

“We would have taken her ourselves, but she is bed-bound.”

Lee Brooks, director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “Demand during the period of this incident was very high across South East Wales and it has taken us longer than we would like to reach some patients.

“Unfortunately, Ms Mendieta was one of those patients and we appreciate how worrying this must have been for her and her family.

“Whilst we arranged help for Ms Mendieta, whose condition we assessed as not life-threatening, our resources were already committed to other patients, both in the community and at hospitals.

“We would like to sincerely apologise for Ms Mindieta’s wait and would like to invite her or a relative to contact us directly if they would like to discuss our response in more detail.”