Mick King at work selling Christmas trees

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DOG walkers and a Christmas tree seller rushed to take a woman to hospital after she slipped on Hampstead Heath and broke her ankle.

Passers-by assisting the woman, who was in her late fifties, called for an ambulance but said they were told by the service that they couldn’t send a vehicle and she would have to make her own way there.

Dominic Parry-Davies was walking his two dogs with his wife on Saturday morning when he saw a woman lying on the ground near the mixed swimming pond and someone beside her waving for people to help.

“She had her daughter with her,” Mr Parry-Davies said. “Another guy came over, and he turned out to be a doctor from another hospital. “He confirmed she’d broken her ankle. It was dangling off her leg.” H

e said her daughter phoned for an ambulance and they were told “no we’re not going to send an ambulance for this, you’ll have to make your way to hospital”.

Mr Parry-Davies added: “I said we’re on the Heath she can’t possibly get to the hospital on her own and they said call 111 and they might be able to help.

“I was shocked because what on earth do you call an ambulance for then? There’s a potential for it to be serious. The idea that someone could walk off the Heath with no crutches and no help is crazy. She was totally ashen and at the point of fainting all the time. She was in absolute pain.”

Mick King, who works for the Christmas tree sellers Shoots and Leaves on the Heath, was hailed by a woman to help. He had a van and was able to drive on the grass to pick up the injured woman.

Mr King said: “I drove up slowly to the park and she’s laying on a bench, and she looked in a bad way, she really did. So being careful with her ankle, I lifted her up, sat her in the van, and basically I drove her to hospital.

“Her ankle was flopping around like a rag. It was gone. It made me feel sick looking at it. She was in a lot of pain. I felt sorry for her.” After a short drive they reached the Royal Free – which is under huge strain from a particularly busy winter period – and he was not able to get assistance to bring her into the building.

He said: “I said [to reception], I’ve got a lady in the van. She broke her ankle. She’s in quite a bad way. And they said, ‘Oh, OK, bring them in’. I asked if they had a wheelchair and they said, up on the second floor, there might be a wheelchair. “I spoke to people on the second floor and they said ‘in that cupboard there’s wheelchairs’.

“You’ve got a woman with a broken ankle. You think someone would come out and say, do you want a hand? Can I help in any way? I mean, nothing, nobody. We did it all ourselves, which is a shame.”

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We are currently facing an extremely busy period and we continue to prioritise the sickest and most serious incidents patients. If any patients have concerns about the treatment they received by our Service, we encourage them to reach out to us so we can work with them to review and learn about their individual case.”

A Royal Free spokesperson said: “We apologise for Mick’s experience and if he would like to get in touch via our patient advisory liaison service [PALS] we can look into this further.”