Elderly Eastbourne woman's '˜excruciating' five and a half hour wait for ambulance

A husband has spoken out after he had to hold his wife in his arms for almost five and a half hours in '˜excruciating pain' while waiting for an ambulance.

Brian Newby is hoping to highlight the pressures the service is under after his wife Beryl, 82, was left screaming in pain when she dislocated her hip on February 20.

The 76-year-old of Macquarie Quay, Sovereign Harbour, said he called 999 at 10.15pm. But emergency services did not arrive until 3.35am.

Mr Newby said, “The pain was excruciating for her. She was screaming, I held her for hours.

“We had no means of getting pain relief. How can you let a lady lay there in my arms for that long before an ambulance? If it had happened in the street she would have died of hypothermia.”

He said he did not have any success trying to call a doctor to get pain relief. Mr Newby said he called the emergency services five times and was told they were ‘frightfully busy’.