One call to what would be classed as a fairly minor incident can ties an ambulance crew up for ages. An elderly neighbour of mine (90 years) had a fall recently, just after being released from hospital after a similar incident after Christmas. She flatly refused to go to hospital against the advice of the paramedics and despite the pleadings of her son and my wife who pops across three times a day to keep an eye on her. By the time they had fully checked her over, arranged for her doctor to visit and settled her down into bed three hours had passed.
Whilst ambulance control centers prioritise calls so the most urgent cases get dealt with first, if all the crews are already tied up with someone they can't be told to leave them and go somewhere else. With only a limited number of ambulances available in any particular area it is not surprising that some unfortunates are left unattended for long periods.
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