Heart attack woman 'waited 2 hours'

An 84-year-old great-grandmother who was suffering chest pains had to wait two hours for a response from her GP out-of-hours service, it has been claimed.

When a doctor finally called and spoke to the son of the woman from Penygraig, south Wales, he said he was calling from Cleveland.

The woman, who asked not to be named, is now being treated in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital after suffering a heart attack.

She said: "It wouldn't have happened in my day, the doctor would have been here sooner on his horse and cart."

Her son, Tony Lockyer said: "I'm appalled. I assume the doctor was calling from Cleveland, England, not Cleveland, Ohio, but nothing would surprise me."

When his mother, who has suffered from angina for years, complained of chest pains on Saturday night, Mr Lockyer rang Primecare, which provides an out-of-hours service for GPs in the Rhondda Cynon Taff area. He claims that he had to wait 12 minutes in a call queuing system before an operator answered his call.

Mr Lockyer says he was told his call would be returned shortly but that he had to wait another two hours to speak to a doctor, who was based in the north east of England. Eventually, nearly three hours after his first call, he spoke to a local GP.

His mother decided she did not want to go to the local accident and emergency department on a busy Saturday night, but in the morning her condition had worsened and he took her to hospital. Tests there found that she had suffered a heart attack some time before.

Mr Lockyer said: "I'll have to use the service again, I won't have a choice, but next time, depending on how serious the problem it is, I will have to ring 999 instead."

A spokeswoman for Primecare said: "We offer our wishes for a speedy recovery. We are undertaking a full investigation and we can't comment further until we know the results of that."