Elderly woman waits over four hours for ambulance after fall in County Durham

Elderly woman waits over four hours for ambulance after fall in County Durham Kathleen Bryson, 80, fell outside her home in Catchgate, near Stanley in County Durham at around 11.20am and was still lying in the same position on the pavement at 3.30pm An elderly woman was left waiting more than four hours for an ambulance on a cold pavement as emergency crews dealt with 'high demand'. Kathleen Bryson tumbled outside her home Catchgate, County Durham at around 11.20am on Tuesday - and was still there by 3.30pm that afternoon. The 80-year-old was covered in blankets brought out by concerned neighbours as they attempted to provide some comfort during the agonising wait. Kathleen's family believe she may have fallen after catching her foot on a pothole in the pavement. As he waited for the ambulance to arrive, her son, Karl Bryson, told ChronicleLive: "It's been nearly three hours that she's been lying on the concrete floor. She's just lying there in the same position. She's 80 years old." Karl was tending to his garden when his sister rang to say their mother had taken a tumble. By the time he got there, neighbours had already alerted the North East Ambulance Service and Karl waited nearly an hour before ringing back at 12.10pm. When no ambulance had turned up by 2pm, Karl and a neighbour phoned again for an update as the wait had gone beyond two hours - which he claims he was told would be the longest they'd have to wait. But their ordeal dragged on until 3.34pm when an ambulance finally turned up to help Kathleen, ambulance service records show. Vicky Court, deputy chief operating officer for North East Ambulance Service, told local media: "We are sorry for the delay experienced by Ms Bryson and for the distress this has caused her and her family. "We recognise that Ms Bryson waited far longer than we would like and this is not the service we would have wanted to provide for her. Our teams work hard to respond to patients as quickly as possible, but at times of high demand, our resources must always be prioritised by clinical need for patients whose lives are immediately in danger. "We will review this incident and would encourage Ms Bryson or her family to contact our patient experience team through our formal complaints process so that the circumstances can be fully investigated and we can feed back to her directly."