Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:06 pm on 15 January 2020.
I'm grateful to the Minister for his response. I believe it's important that when we talk about these issues we remember that we are talking about real people, real families, and the impact on their lives.
I want to draw the Minister's attention to a constituent from Llanelli who contacted me last week regarding his father's treatment following a fall on Sunday 29 December. He fractured his hip. The elderly gentleman was fortunate he wasn't by himself. A phone call was made to the emergency services at 8.30 p.m. It was not responded to until 10.30 a.m. That's a 14-hour wait for a vulnerable, elderly 88-year-old gentleman. By the time Mr Ogborne was taken into Morriston Hospital and given a bed, almost a whole day had passed since his fall, and he was very fortunate, of course, that he wasn't on his own when that happened. The situation was exasperated by a very large number of ambulances queuing outside A&E. His hip operation was scheduled for 31 December. It eventually took place on 1 January, but his health deteriorated further, and very sadly he succumbed to his illness and died on 4 January this year.
I hope the Minister will agree with me that this is not the kind of treatment that particularly our most elderly and vulnerable constituents and citizens of Wales should expect. I hope that he will be able to provide some assurance to the family that the outcome of the review that he's already allowing today will make it less likely that people like Mr Ogborne will be asked to wait this kind of length of time again. And I wonder if the Minister—though there may be complications—will consider apologising to Mr Ogborne's family, because I know that this is not the standard of service that the Minister would want.