Rural Healthcare Trauma

I have just come off the telephone from a constituent in Tywyn Gwynedd who has told me of the unforgivable ordeal she and her neighbour had to undergo in order to obtain an emergency ambulance.

My constituent (who worked as a nurse for forty five years) prior to her retirement was summoned to help by her frightened neighbour a couple of nights ago as her partner was desperately ill.

He had been suffering with cancer and was vomiting up blood.
My constituent phoned for an ambulance. From her nursing experience, it was clear that the man needed immediate hospitalisation and probably a blood transfusion.

She tells me she had to ‘jump through hoops’ to get that ambulance and was asked the most ridiculous and irrelevant questions over the phone.
A lot of time was wasted before the ambulance was despatched, so much so that in her angst, she phoned the police to see if they could clarify if an ambulance was in fact coming.

The patient was eventually taken to Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth after a traumatic 31 mile journey on a terrible road in appalling weather during which time his already desperate condition deteriorated.
He died the next day.
My neighbour doesn’t blame the doctors or the ambulance service. It is the ‘system’ she wants held to account.

The question she is asking me is that given the patient’s medical history and circumstances, why could he not have been taken to Tywyn Memorial (the local community hospital) where he could have died in relative peace? Couldn’t a transfusion have been offered to him there? It appears not.
Is this what clinical governance means? Is this what it’s actually all about ?
I remember a Regional Committee Meeting in Aberdyfi over two years ago when the Gwynedd Local Health Board told the public that their vision for Tywyn Hospital was for it to be ‘the cornerstone of community health care provision’.
Of course it’s easy to offer ‘visions’ when you don’t have to offer commitments of timescales along with definite and detailed provision.
I’m really furious that my constituents are continually pedalled this kind of inaccurate and misleading information.
Why can’t this Government understand that ‘geography’ is the very reason why they cannot remove rural healthcare services and replace them with untried and untested alternatives. My God, it’s not rocket science!