Woman strapped her grandad with a broken hip to a plank and drove him to the hospital herself after being told no ambulances were available (Picture: Media Wales)

A woman was forced to strap her grandad to a plank of wood and drive him to hospital in the back of a van after being told no ambulances were available.

Nicole Lea, from Pontypool in south Wales, said she found Melvyn Ryan lying on the floor at his home in Cwmbran with a broken shoulder and bleeding from a cut to his head.

She was alerted to her 89-year-old grandad’s dilemma after receiving a call from the emergency lifeline button he carried around his neck, and rushed to investigate.

But after calling 999 for an ambulance upon arriving at the pensioner’s house, she was told none were available and that no one would be coming to help.

Instead the call handler reportedly told Nicole to ring an out-of-hours GP and book a taxi to take Melvyn to the hospital, before rudely hanging up in order to ‘answer other calls’.

‘I couldn’t really believe what I was being told,’ said the 27-year-old firefighter, who has been Melvyn’s principal carer since he lost his wife Maureen to Covid in 2020.

To make matters worse, after finally getting Melvyn to the hospital they say they were told by staff if they’d followed the advice given over the phone then the pensioner could have died.

Nicole said: ‘I was expecting a long wait for paramedics but never thought I’d literally be told, “We have nothing to send, you’ll have to find alternative transport”. I was left with grandad on the floor in agony and me wondering how I was going to save his life.

‘I ended up, with my partner and mum’s help, getting him onto a plank of wood and into the back of the van we bought to transport our dogs.’

World War Two Army veteran Melvyn Ryan, 89 was also treated for a broken shoulder and a head wound (Picture: Media Wales)

She said she was left ‘saddened’ and ‘disappointed’ by the whole incident.

‘They told us that had we sat him up in a taxi the break in his hip would’ve likely ruptured an artery and been catastrophic for him,’ Nicole added.

‘I knew the NHS was in trouble and wait times were long. I also knew that it’s understaffed and its workers are underpaid.

‘But what I didn’t know when I called 999 was that they’d just turn around and say they weren’t sending help. Neither did I know they’d hang up on me, expecting me to figure out how to get him to safety.

‘It’s only because of teamwork, brainstorming and quick thinking that the three of us managed to get grandad – an World War Two Army veteran who once fought for his country – to the Grange University Hospital within a couple of hours.’

Nicole’s partner Elliot Hill added: ‘Once we got to the hospital though everyone was great – couldn’t have done more for Melvyn. They rushed to my van and got him straight inside on a trolley.

‘He was also X-rayed within an hour or so.  So our complaint is not with frontline staff at all, it’s with the management.’

The advice they gave caregiver Nicole over the phone could have killed Melvyn if they’d attempted it, they were apparently later told (Picture: Media Wales)

Lee Brooks, executive director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said they were sorry to hear about Mr Ryan’s treatment and admitted their service levels had fallen short.

‘The pressures facing the broader NHS have been well documented in the media, including how those pressures are impacting our ambulance services,’ he said.

‘Current levels of demand, handover delays at hospitals and staff sickness levels have limited our capacity to respond in a safe and timely manner

‘We invite Mr Ryan and his family to get in touch with our Putting Things Right team so that we can investigate the situation and better understand their experience.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Nicole Lea from Pontypool drove her WW2 veteran grandad to hospital after being told no ambulaces were available.