"Waiting for an ambulance"

My mother recently had a home visit from a doctor from her GP surgery. The doctor called the 111 service and requested an ambulance for my mother, he told her it could take up to 4 hours for the ambulance to arrive.

Four hours later the ambulance still had not arrived, my mother’s time was in limbo while she waited. I called the surgery who called the 111 service to get an update. We were told that the there was a high demand for ambulances at the time and it could be another 2 hours. Some time later my mother’s friend arrived at my mother’s house, concerned about my mother’s condition she called the 111 service who suggested she upgrade the severity of my mum’s condition so that a 999 service ambulance could be sent. This was done and finally just after midnight the ambulance arrived.

My mother is in her eighties and has a number of health conditions. I think it’s dreadful that she should have been kept waiting for 11 hours for an ambulance and worse that we were given excuses such as ‘no ambulances’ or ‘did not have a wheelchair’. My mother cannot walk unaided but I’m sure they could have got her to an ambulance without a wheelchair.