A pensioner with a suspected broken hip was kept waiting as he lay outside his Tenby flat for nearly 24 hours for an ambulance, the Observer has heard.

According to information from a neighbour, a 74-year-old man had to wait on the floor outside his Warren Street flat all through the night and well into the next afternoon (yesterday - Tuesday, December 20) before paramedics were available to attend to him. At 8.41am the wait was already calculated to have been 16 hours, and there were more than seven hours still to go.

It is understood that the man was found lying two metres from the front door of his flat with a hip injury that could have been exacerbated if anyone had tried to move him. Ambulance services were called, and concerned neighbours kept a watchful rota to ensure that the man was kept warm. He was also seen by a doctor, the neighbour added, who recommended paracetamol for pain relief while the man awaited the paramedics.

The unacceptably long wait has been attributed to queues of ambulances waiting to offload patients at Withybush Hospital.

This news comes as some ambulance staff walk out in the first of two separate days of planned strike action, December 21 and 28 and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust warns that the number of emergency ambulances able to attend patients will be significantly affected.

For advice on how to relieve the pressure on ambulance services, please read the following article: