A CONCERNED man has criticised a GP practice for not attending his elderly brother after a fall — leaving him on the floor to be attended by paramedics nearly 30 hours later.

Roger Shrimpton, of Tavistock, said Abbey Surgery in the town should not have relied on the over-stretched ambulance service to attend to his brother Lionel, 89, who lives in a West Devon nursing home, on the morning of Thursday December 15.

He said the GPs should have attended in person because he was not only an elderly vulnerable man with dementia, but also was recovering from a hip operation after a previous fall.

The surgery told the Times it could not comment about the case due to patient confidentiality. However, it said its policy was that doctors would hold a phone consultation through nursing home staff to assess the needs of the patient, followed by advice.

Roger said: ‘My brother was lying on the bedroom floor unnecessarily in a nursing home for over 28 hours through a phone call assessment that Abbey Surgery got completely wrong and advised the care staff paramedics should be called.

‘This put unnecessary strain on an over burdened ambulance service and the nursing staff, who had to be present 24/7. I raised my concerns by phone to Abbey Surgery after my brother had been on the floor for 24 hours, but they didn’t even reply.

‘I was getting more and more concerned for my brother because he was confused about the situation and I didn’t know if he’d been injured again.’

The paramedics arrived at 4.15pm on Friday, having been called at 10.30am the day before. They assessed within minutes that he was unhurt and lifted him to his chair.

Roger said: ‘It was a great relief, but we and Lionel shouldn’t have gone through that stress. I have no criticism of the nursing home staff, they acted on the medics’ advice, or of the ambulance service. We all know how over stretched the ambulance service is and the GPs were only half a mile away.

‘I consider this complete neglect and unprofessional. My brother and other elderly people deserve better.’

Darren Newland, Abbey Surgery Practice Manager, added: ‘We have excellent working relationships with nursing homes we look after. The doctors are well aware of the training by the staff at each home and have a good understanding of what they are capable of doing. Whenever, they have situations in a home, we first conduct a telephone consultation. The doctor assesses the needs of the patient based on the conversation they have with staff and the best course of action is advised. We are very aware of the pressures facing all NHS services. Our team here has never worked harder.’ South Western Ambulance Service said: ‘We would like to apologise for the delay experienced by this patient. We are working with our partners in the NHS and social care, to do all we can to improve the service to patients.’

The nursing home’s policy is understood to be that a member of staff has to attend a fallen patient 24/7 and take the medical advice, whether it is from a GP or a paramedic.