THE MAYOR of Fairford has voiced support for a 10-year campaign to improve ambulance response times in the Cotswolds, after her 89-year-old neighbour waited two hours for paramedics following a serious fall.

Cllr Jennie Sanford, also a working nurse, was called by her elderly next door neighbour, Doreen Richards, for assistance after a trip had left her ‘bleeding profusely’ in September.

Speaking at a town council meeting on Tuesday, January 10, Cllr Sanford said: “Her blood pressure had dropped so low and she was just bleeding out onto the floor.

"Even though I'd said it was an emergency, please respond now, they did not take any notice of me whatsoever because I was a nurse and I was in her home, she was safe, according to them. Well, she wasn't. She was dying in front of me.”

Speaking to the Standard, she explained that she had arrived home from a council meeting around midday on September 14, before being called by her neighbour to come next door where she had tripped over the threshold of the front door and cut her knee.

Cllr Sanford said she called for an ambulance when she arrived, with the first call made by Mrs Richards 20 minutes before, and 999 was called a total of four times over the next two hours before the ambulance arrived, including by a first responder who arrived at 1.30pm.

She said the first responder pleaded with the call handler not to turn the ambulance away, which was apparently coming from Moreton-in-Marsh.

Cllr Sanford said Mrs Richards had taken warfarin, which ‘thins the blood’, having visited the town’s doctors surgery that morning, meaning she was bleeding more than would usually be expected.

Having called the doctors surgery, she was told the Mrs Richards’ blood pressure had been 140 over 80 that morning, but had dropped to 60 over 40 – meaning she was ‘close to death’ – when Cllr Sanford measured it after the fall.

“It’s appalling that our ambulance service is in this state. The government needs to release more money to allow a more efficient service,” she added.

Last week, leader of Cotswold District Council Lynden Stowe renewed calls to South West Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust to take action to improve response times, having led a campaign since 2007 after a 23-year-old motorist died after waiting 45 minutes following a crash in Cirencester.

A spokesman for SWAST said: “We received a 999 call around 12.30pm on September 14 last year from an address in the Fairford area informing us that a female patient had fallen and sustained a knee injury.

"A paramedic arrived on scene and began treating the patient around 1.40pm, with an ambulance arriving around 2.15pm, at which point she was taken to Gloucester Royal Hospital for further treatment.

"No complaint has been made in relation to this incident, so we are unaware of any concerns relating to it.

“We only have a finite number of resources available to respond to the ongoing rise in demand for our service and we must prioritise those in a life threatening time critical emergency situation. The Trust is handling almost 500 additional incidents every day than we were five years ago.

"Unfortunately, there are occasions when people wait longer for an ambulance than we would like and this is an example where this has happened.”