Find out why lifelong Labour voter is telling other parties 'Come and get my vote'
A woman who lay in a field with a broken leg for an hour waiting for an ambulance has said she is fed up with a “broken” health service.
Now, lifelong Labour voter, Jessie, Bishop, 58, from Llangollen, has issued a ‘come get my vote’ appeal to other parties because she feels the Welsh Government is not funding the service properly.
Speaking of her agonising wait on April 20th, said: “I was just out for a walk with the dogs and I was going across the field when the next thing was I was on the floor.
“It was just one of those things, a complete accident. I have diabetes and and a weak leg. Luckily I was not on my own as there were plenty of people around. It was 5.35pm when they phoned first, by 5.55pm there was still nothing and by then my leg was bleeding badly and I was in a huge amount of pain.
“I am diabetic and I was really getting very scared and I called my councillor, Stuart Davies, who also put calls in for help.
After her terrifying experience Miss Bishop is ready to change the habit of a lifetime and vote for a party other than Labour who she blames for what happened to her.
“She said: I am not blaming the ambulance service they are underfunded. I think the health minister, Vaughan Gething who is earning thousands of pounds a year, should do something about it. There is a saying that if it’s” not broken then don’t fix it. Well the NHS here in Wales is broken and needs fixing.
“I always vote Labour but that might well change now after this. I am willing to listen to the other parties have to say about what they want to do to improve our health service.
Despite the wait she praised the ambulance and hospital staff who cared for her.
“I have to say I have no qualms about the staff of the ambulance service and the doctors and nurses who took care of me they were brilliant but they need more funding and staff so they can do the job properly.
“For example, when I was on the ward there was 17 patients to one nurse, the nurse did a great job but it’s not fair on the staff.”
At the time of the incident The Welsh Ambulance Service apologised for the wait Mrs Bishop had to endure.
Sonia Thompson, head of operations for North Wales, said: “We appreciate that this would have been an uncomfortable wait and we apologise for the experience this patient had.
“We received a call at about 6.05pm on Thursday to reports that a woman had fallen and sustained an injury in Fron Bach, Llangollen, this call was treated as an emergency but was not prioritised as being life threatening.
“We sent a crew in an emergency ambulance, who arrived at the scene within 53 minutes, and during this period the patient’s condition was being monitored by one of the clinicians in our clinical contact centre.
“At the time of the call all of our available ambulances were either committed to other patients in the community or handing over at hospitals, including Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where we experienced handover delays on Thursday.
“We thank Cllr Davies for bringing this matter to our attention and should the patient wish to discuss her care further with us we are of course happy to do this. In the meantime we would like to send her our best wishes for her recovery.”
