"Ambulance was excellent, pity it took so long"

One day in September at at about 1830 hours in a car park my wife fell into a hole dug in the ground. She was badly injured sustaining a fractured hip and arm. My wife, aged in her 70s was left lying on wet sand in pouring rain for 3 and 1/2 hours by South West Ambulance service and if a RNLI crew had not been passing I believe my wife could have easily died as a result of her fall. I could not get a signal on my mobile phone and the RNLI wireless communication was used to contact 999 for the ambulance. This was a disgrace and excuses such as lack of resources will not wash. The original call stated the injuries were serious.

The treatment received from the ambulance crew was excellent, a pity those deskbound  took so long of the service did not follow their professionalism.

I have sent 3 emails to their on line complaints. They have not had the decency to reply or even acknowledge my emails, to date.

On arrival at the Royal Cornwall treatment was excellent from A &E to operation on my wife's hip and plastering her arm. The staff on Trauma 1 were professional and friendly, from cleaners to nursing staff.

I was very concerned that the transfer of my wife to our local hospital took so long, with my wife being given conflicting information as to the reasons for delay.

Whoever decided to farm out hospital car parking to a private company have deprived the hospital of thousands of pounds income.

I live in Greater London and my local hospitals also charge for parking but not the rip-off charges made for parking at your hospital. I have a Blue Badge but still had to pay disgraceful charges. I could only afford the minimum charge every day. Twice, due to medical requirements, I had to rush out and pay a second initial charge.  Just to get to and from the location of my wife took at at least 15 minutes. I cannot see why the charges are so high. These charges are nothing more than daylight robbery, with no thought for the problems of those who have no choice but to use their own transport. Not only am I disabled but we had our dog with us, while on holiday in Cornwall. You cannot take a dog into the hospital. I spoke to a lot of car owners who all agree that the charges are a disgrace. How a hospital can treat patients and their families like this cannot be acceptable. It was only the day I had to return home was I told that I was entitled to a discount but was not supplied with any claim form.