A 90-year-old woman endured a seven-hour wait for an ambulance after suffering from a broken hip.

On Wednesday 2 April Decima Mitchell suffered a fall whilst waiting for food at the New Celtic Restaurant in Aberaeron.

After realising her injuries were serious, staff called an ambulance, initially being told one would arrive within one and a half to two hours.

Having fallen at 1.15pm, emergency services were called 15 minutes later, however the ambulance only arrived at 8.30pm.

According to eyewitnesses, staff cordoned off a section of the restaurant and got the holiday-maker as comfortable as possible during her wait.

When a relative of Ms Mitchell called 999 to ask why the ambulance still had not arrived, the operator confirmed that all ambulances were still full of patients waiting to be offloaded at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth.

According to a witness who did not want to be named, Ms Mitchell, who owns a caravan nearby, is still in treatment for her injuries.

In response to the incident, Liam Williams, Executive Director of Quality and Nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “I would like to extend my sincere apologies to Ms Mitchell and her family for what would have been a distressing wait for an ambulance.

“This is not the standard of service we aspire to deliver, and we recognise that this is not what people expect of us.

“Unfortunately, the wait experienced by Ms Mitchell reflects the sustained and well-documented pressures across the entire NHS in Wales.

“We are working with our NHS partners to consider how we alleviate these pressures and are also thinking differently about the way we deliver our own services in future.

“We will be making contact with Ms Mitchell and her family directly to understand the circumstances in more detail and to investigate fully.”

Last month, Health secretary, Jeremy Miles announced to the Senedd that the ambulance service in Wales is to trial changes over the next year which will focus on outcomes rather than response times, saying: “We must have a significant improvement in ambulance handover performance to ensure ambulances are available to respond to 999 calls in the community and not stuck outside hospitals for hours on end.”

Before the pandemic the median response time for red calls was four minutes and 30 seconds but at the beginning of this year the average was eight minutes and 17 seconds.

Most calls are “amber”, for which there is no corresponding measure, but a further review will assess whether to introduce targets for the category which includes stroke symptoms.

The Senedd’s health committee called for a review of the red target in a report published in August after taking evidence from the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.

Russell George, the chair of the committee, welcomed the statement, adding: “But, of course, having targets in place is important – they’re there to ensure accountability.”

Mabon ap Gwynfor MS also backed the change in direction, describing the red response time target as “largely ornamental” over the past half a decade.