Taxi firm refuses ill child trip to hospital
A Mid Wales grandmother was left panicking when a taxi firm refused to take her and her ill grandson to hospital because they "didn't like the road".
Sheila Pop-Rhiann, 70, was looking after her three-year-old grandson Andreas, in Leighton, near Welshpool, when he began complaining of chest pains and wheezing.
The disabled pensioner decided to call for help.
When the pains continued into the evening she rang NHS Direct, who said he could be developing an asthma attack and advised her to take him to hospital.
But when she phoned Welshpool-based Amber Taxis explaining the situation was urgent they still refused to collect them.
The firm said they were not prepared to go because on a previous occasion a taxi driver had his exhaust pipe knocked off.
Mrs Pop-Rhiann, said she could not believe the attitude of the taxi company.
"My daughter gets asthma and had it very bad as a child. He was coughing and wheezing and when my daughter is going to have an asthma attack she has chest pains as well so I was very worried," she said.
"I spoke to NHS Direct, who have helped us before and really are brilliant, and the nurse spoke to him and listened to him and said he should go to hospital.
"When I phoned Amber Taxis they said they wouldn't come up even though I said there had been repairs done to the road and explained why I needed one but they still wouldn't come. Fortunately he is much better now but it could have been an emergency. It was a very unfeeling attitude."
She added that Stonebridge Taxis came straight away after she called them.
Colin Smith, of Amber Taxis, said: "Everytime we go up there, someone has an exhaust knocked off our cars so that's why we wouldn't do it. If it was an emergency she could have called an ambulance."
Andreas' mother Heidi, said she was "absolutely disgusted" by Amber Taxis.
"They need naming and shaming," she said.
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Do they not have such things as ambulances in Wales?
