AN ELDERLY man waited more than five hours for an ambulance after suffering a fall which broke his ribs and bruised his lungs.

Leif Horup, 78, fell near St Mary’s Church in Nash Village last Friday, September 8.

His partner called for an ambulance between 8:30am and 9am and nothing arrived until 2:40pm.

“My dad is recovering in hospital with three broken ribs and bruised lungs,” said daughter Brigitta Horup, who had to use her phone to keep in touch with her south Wales family through the ordeal.

“I’m concerned because if this happened to my father, it could be happening to lots of other vulnerable people too.

“The Grange is looking after him very well, thankfully, after his experience of the six-hour wait on Friday. He has his own room with a nice view and he’s getting physiotherapy,” Ms Horup said.

“Hopefully he will get better soon, I know he is itching to get home."

Temperatures in Newport last Friday got as high as 27 degrees Celsius before the ambulance collected Mr Horup from the field.

Darren Panniers, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s head of emergency medical services in south east Wales, has acknowledged that Mr Horup would have experienced a “painful and distressing wait for help”.

“We are really sorry to Mr Horup for what would have been a painful and distressing wait for help,” Mr Panniers said.

“As an ambulance service, we prioritise 999 calls according to the patient’s needs, and the sickest patients will always receive help first.

South Wales Argus:

“At the time of the call to Mr Horup, all of our resources were already committed to other patients, either in the community or at hospital, where on Friday we lost 670 hours across Wales waiting to hand patients over to health board colleagues.

“When ambulances are tied up at hospitals, they’re not able to respond to other calls in the community and it’s as frustrating for crews as it is for patients.

“We would invite Mr Horup or a representative to contact us directly so that we can better understand their concerns and look into what happened.”

Asked about Mr Horup's wait for an ambulance, a spokesperson for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board cited the same "significant delays".

"We are experiencing significant delays in the flow of patients through our hospital systems at the moment due to difficulties with discharging patients who no longer need hospital-based care.

South Wales Argus:

"At any given time, around 75 per cent of the beds in our Enhanced Local General Hospitals are occupied by the patients who are deemed medically fit for discharge but are awaiting some form of support at home before they can leave. In turn, these delays are affecting the overall flow of patients through our hospitals and are causing long waits in our Emergency Department and for ambulances.

"We're working rapidly with our Local Authority colleagues to address these delays and help patients who no longer require hospital care to return to their own homes. We would also ask patients' families for their support in helping their relative to leave hospital.

"We're very pleased that Mr Horup received an excellent standard of care at The Grange University Hospital and wish him a speedy recovery."