A 90-year-old British woman in Cornwall waited 40 hours wait for an ambulance, only to be stuck in the vehicle overnight outside the accident and emergency unit before finally being diagnosed with a suspected hip fracture and needing surgery the next day.
And in a second case, a woman from another Cornish village shared pictures (see below) on social media last week of a makeshift shelter she built around her 87-year-old father after he fell and then waited 15 hours for paramedics.
He had broken seven ribs and bad two fractures to his pelvis: images posted on Twitter showed she had positioned a football goalpost around her injured parent, then laid tarpaulin and three umbrellas over it to shield him from the elements.
In the first case, Steven Syms, from Cornwall, said his mother Daphne fell over at her home on the Sunday evening, but paramedics did not arrive until Tuesday afternoon.
She then had to remain in the vehicle overnight at Royal Cornwall Hospital as there was a queue at A&E. She was eventually diagnosed with a suspected fractured hip and needed an operation.
Syms said the NHS system was “totally broken” and his mother would have certainly died if her condition had been more serious.
Speaking last Wednesday (17 August) about his 90-year-old mother's traumatic experience, Syms told BBC Radio Cornwall: “We phoned NHS on Sunday evening. Mum was in a pain and NHS 111 gave us all the advice that they could do and we managed to get mum back into a chair.
“We then dialled 999 and waited for the ambulance but unfortunately it took 40 hours before it arrived.
“It took nine minutes before my 999 call was answered. If that was a cardiac arrest, nine minutes is much too long – it's the end of somebody's life.
“Paramedics are incredible people and need to do the job they're trained for. At the moment, they are being abused and used as part of the nursing section at Royal Cornwall Hospital.
“The system is not deteriorating, it's totally broken and needs to be urgently reviewed.”
A spokesman for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s integrated care system said:
“Like other parts of the country, our health and care system continues to experience pressure. The reasons are complex, including high demand for primary and secondary care, mental health services and adult social care.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Fears for patients’ safety as ‘broken’ NHS mired in staffing crisis
Long NHS waiting lists in the UK force the desperate to seek private healthcare
NHS patients increasingly opt to pay more for private GP visits