The family of a Wrexham woman who waited 14 hours for an ambulance, and then spent at least another 14 in the ambulance outside the Maelor said the experience was “awful”.

Teresa Jones was recently diagnosed with cervical cancer and was told by her doctor to ring an ambulance on Monday (December 5) following a sudden decline in her health.

Her son, Jay Jones, had dialled 999 and was told there would be a wait of around an hour and three-quarters to four hours, however, Ms Jones waited a total of 14 hours for the ambulance to arrive, at around 3 am in the morning.

Because of her diagnosis, Ms Jones has been described by her family as “vulnerable” and have said that she was in a “bad way”.

While she did receive treatment in the ambulance, she was not moved from out the back of the ambulance for at least another 14 hours after arriving at the Wrexham Maelor.

Her son said that they were told there was a bed waiting for her on a ward during this time, but she hadn’t been moved and other ambulances were also parked outside the hospital.

Ms Jones was later moved inside the hospital in the night on Tuesday (December 6), in what would be over 24 hours after the ambulance was first rang.

Jay said: “When I placed a call, they said that she was in a priority below someone suffering a cardiac arrest, she was still quite high up, but I sat there thinking if you’ve got three of four ambulances sat of the forecourt that means that those people that need emergency priority care right now, they’re not going to get seen.”

Jay said that the experience has made him think twice about whether he would go to the Maelor for emergency care if he needed it.

He also expressed his frustration at how many ambulances are parked outside the hospital with patients in the back when they should be out treating others.

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Stephen Sheldon, Service Manager for the Welsh Ambulance Service in North Wales, said: “We would like to extend our apologies to Ms Jones on her wait for help and invite the family to contact us directly.

“Significant pressure remains across the urgent and emergency care system, and extensive hospital handover delays has led to some very long waits for patients.

“On the 5 and 6 December, we spent over 1,800 hours outside hospitals across Wales waiting to hand patients over to our hospital colleagues.

“Our Clinical Contact Centre remained in touch with Ms Jones, until the ambulance arrived, and was cared for by ambulance staff until her admittance to hospital.

“We are working with partners across Wales to address the level of demand we are experiencing.

“The public can help by only calling 999 in a serious or life-threatening emergency, so that our precious resources are available for those who need us most.”

Dr Nick Lyons, Executive Medical Director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said: “Our Emergency Departments across North Wales remain extremely busy resulting in much longer waiting times that we would like, despite the best efforts of our nursing and medical staff.

“We apologise to Ms Jones for her lengthy wait and urge her family to contact us directly with their concerns.

“We continue to face challenges to discharge patients from hospital to suitable accommodation or care services. This does impact flow through the entire hospital system, and on our ability to bring patients into and through the Emergency Department in a timely manner and we continue to work with our health and social care partners to improve this.

“We would also ask the public to help us over these winter months; patients who do not need full emergency hospital treatment may find that they can get appropriate advice and care from other NHS services, including GP surgeries, minor injury units and local pharmacies. Please visit the Health Board website or contact NHS 111 for advice if you are unsure where to go.”