A WOMAN who called for an ambulance when she thought her partner was having a stroke says one failed to show up for three hours – by which point he had already been discharged from hospital.
Nicola Glover, 36, said her partner Ian Gilroy, 61, was suffering from a dental infection and was worried it had spread to his brain on February 9.
"He was completely out of it," she said. "He was spaced out and not making any sense."
Mrs Glover was worried that Mr Gilroy was having a stroke, as he had suffered one a couple of years before, so she called for an ambulance at about 3.30pm.
She said: "They called back before 4pm to ask if there was any way I could take him to hospital, or they could call for a taxi."
Mrs Glover declined the operator's offer of a cab from the couple's home in Goodenough Close, Old Coulsdon, because she is disabled, and managed to get her father to give the couple a lift to Croydon University Hospital's A&E department.
Mrs Glover said she was concerned that London Ambulance Service (LAS) was offering taxis to patients rather than ambulances.
"Just think how much money might be spent on the actual ambulances rather than on taxis to people when they should be sending ambulances," she said.
By 7pm, Mr Gilroy had seen a doctor and been treated with antibiotics for an infection on his brain.
But Mrs Glover then had a call from her uncle, who lives nearby, who said an ambulance crew were "on the verge of breaking down the door", at her home.
She said they may have thought someone had passed out inside, as she'd left the television on for her dogs.
Mrs Glover said she had earlier told the operator she would make her own way to A&E, a suggestion LAS disputes.
An LAS spokesman said that from the information provided to them, Mr Glover was "conscious, breathing and alert".
She said: "We are sorry we couldn't be there as soon as we would have liked and for any distress this may have caused but we need to prioritise patients in a life-threatening condition.
"If the patient would like more information, they should get in touch with our Patient Experience Department."
