‘You can queue for a whole shift’: the crisis facing Welsh ambulance crews

As bed shortages leave patients waiting for hours to reach Welsh hospitals, the Guardian speaks to paramedics on the frontline

By the time Caroline was finally stretchered into the Grange university hospital in south Wales, it had been more than seven hours since she dialled 999.

The 46-year-old, who lives in a one-bedroomed bungalow up in the hills, woke with severe chest pain. She thought she was having a heart attack and called for help at 3.30am. An ambulance crew reached Caroline at 8am and drove her down the valley to the Grange. She then spent the best part of two hours in the back of the truck in the hospital car park before a bed could be found.