Fareham pensioner, 66, with a learning disability faces two-hour wait for ambulance on a freezing pavement after falling on ice patch from reported Southern Water leak

Michael Wrapson, 66, slipped on an ice patch from a leaking manhole on Bridge Road in Sarisbury at about 8.15am on Thursday. Four passing drivers pulled over after seeing him in distress on the freezing ground.

Unable to move the man, the group called 999 at 8.20am – and were left waiting for almost three hours until a paramedic crew arrived at 10.45am.

One kind-hearted resident who rushed to the man’s aid, Felicity Burleigh-Thurston, said: ‘We weren’t warned about it being a long wait.

‘He was in pain. He was saying, “the ambulance doesn’t care about me, they don’t care about me”. He kept saying, “please don’t leave me”. There’s no way we would risk moving him.’

Another passerby who came to the man’s aid, Louise Viljoen, said: ‘He was very distressed that the ambulance wasn’t coming and people were getting angry.

‘I’m a healthcare worker so I know how slammed the hospitals and ambulance service are. Everyone is doing their best.’

A call to 101 prompted a highways team to attend and grit the pavement, while a Southern Water team is reported to have attended to inspect the leak - and told the group that it had there for at least a week.

Felicity said: ‘Water has leaked and leaked and the water had frozen. There was an 8m patch of ice. The water was still leaking when we left.’

Residents were also ‘gobsmacked’ that four police cars drove past – which had several vehicles displaying their hazard lights and the man covered in a large blanket gathered from a nearby house.

Felicity said: ‘It was evident that something had happened.’

Summing up the response from the various agencies, she added: ‘We were all gobsmacked. I was ridiculously shocked. It’s not good enough.’

Both Louise and Felicity said that the paramedic team were ‘amazing’ on arrival.

A carer who supports Mr Wrapson was contacted and escorted him to Southampton General Hospital, where he stayed for three nights, He suffered a sprained hip, which has left him using a mobility walking frame.

Mr Wrapson said: ‘I would like to say thank you to everyone who helped me. I was panicking.’

South Central Ambulance Service classed the incident as a category four call, with a target to respond within three hours in nine out of 10 instances.

A representative said: ‘Our demand, like that of all ambulance services, has increased and pressure on ambulance services reflects the difficulties facing the whole health and social care system, particularly at busy hospitals where challenges handing over patients impacts the availability of our crews.

‘There will be occasions when prioritisation means some patients will wait longer, particularly at times of significant pressure on the service as we have been experiencing for some time now, but we are working extremely hard within our own service and with our partners to provide as much resilience in the system as we can to limit delays.’

A representative from Southern Water said they were ‘very sorry to hear of this incident’.

They added: ‘We are investigating a reported leak in Bridge Road, Sarisbury Green, as a priority and will provide further detail when full circumstances have been established.’

Police calls that come into the control room are risk assessed before a deployment decision is made, according to a spokesman from Hampshire Constabulary.

He said: ‘Passing officers will have likely been en route to incidents tasked to them via the control room at this time.’

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