84-year-old woman with broken leg waited six hours for ambulance response

An 84-year-old woman claims she had to wait six hours for a response from emergency services phone operators after she fell and broke her leg.

Carla Somma fell over on Tuesday at her home in Garratt Lane, Wandsworth.

Mrs Somma’s niece, Raffaella Somma, who was with her at the time called 999 for her aunt, but claims she was told her condition was not urgent enough and was directed to call the non-emergency line 111.

But she claims they too said they would not be able to help.

Raffaella said: “I called the GP, no answer. I used the GP surgery app and the automated symptom checker on the app said call 999. 

“I called 999 again, this time they said there would be a long wait.

“She’s normally very healthy and independent and tried to be stoic about it, but I knew it from her voice she was in pain.”

Raffaella’s daughter eventually took Mrs Somma in a taxi to St George’s hospital in Tooting.

Mrs Somma was admitted with a severe fracture of her femur, near the knee. By the time she was in hospital, six hours after first calling 999, she finally received a call from rapid response operators.

Raffaella said: “If we weren’t there she would have been waiting six hours for an ambulance to come all by herself with a broken leg.

“Staff were brilliant but she was in agony. I’m disgusted with what the Government is doing to the people in the UK through years of deliberate sabotage.

“My poor aunt would have been left at home with a severe fracture, in pain, unable to move and at risk of further injury.

“I want to stress this is not the ambulance staff, nor the hospital nor GPs fault. 

“This is entirely a disgraceful political decision to systematically destroy the country. I’m so angry and upset. How can people still continue to vote for this rubbish is beyond me.”

London Ambulance Service chief medical officer Dr Fenella Wrigley, said: “We are sorry to hear that Ms Somma suffered an injury following a fall at her home.

“With permission from Ms Somma, we have listened back to the calls made at the time and reviewed the advice and response provided. Ms Somma’s call was triaged appropriately as a category three call, whereby we would aim for an ambulance to reach the patient within two hours. However, we would like to apologise to Ms Somma for the advice she was given in this instance.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “No one should have to wait longer than necessary to access urgent and emergency care.

“We are working hard to improve waiting times which have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December 2022.

“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan will allow people to be seen quicker by scaling up community teams, expanding virtual wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on the road. This is on top of £750million we have provided this winter to speed up hospital discharge and free up beds.”

Pictured top: Carla Somma living in Streatham (Picture: Raffaella Soma)