An elderly woman has been found dead at her home after waiting four hours for an ambulance to arrive.
Paramedics turned up three hours and 45 minutes after the 81-year-old dialled 999 complaining of neck pain.
The crew had to knock down the door of her house in Clacton, Essex, after she didn’t answer.
Ambulance chiefs said they couldn’t send a vehicle sooner due to ‘extremely high demand’ on the service and delays at accident and emergency units.
Paramedics turned up three hours and 45 minutes after the 81-year-old dialled 999 complaining of neck pain
The GMB union said the case in Clacton, Essex, was ‘another example of how we are not coping’ with the NHS winter crisis.
The East of England Ambulance Service said it was ‘under extreme pressure’ after crews arrived three hours and 45 minutes after her initial call.
Bosses at East of England Ambulance Service Trust have apologised to her family over the wait.
They said couldn’t send an ambulance to her because due to ‘extremely high demand’ on the service and delays at accident and emergency units.
Deputy Chief Executive Sandy Brown said: ‘Our sincere condolences and apologies go out to the patient’s family and friends and we are truly sorry for the ambulance wait that occurred at this incident.
‘Regarding this incident, we received a call just before 8pm on 2nd January to a report of a woman with chest pain in Clacton.
‘Due to extremely high demand on the service and delays at accident and emergency units, we were not able to immediately dispatch an ambulance.
‘A clinician in one of our control rooms made a welfare call and spoke to the patient at 9.47pm and an ambulance crew arrived at the address at 11.46pm. The patient was found unconscious and not breathing and sadly died at the scene.’
The East of England Ambulance Service said it was ‘under extreme pressure’ after crews arrived three hours and 45 minutes after her initial call (above, Clacton Hospital)
He added: ‘We have very publicly expressed how stretched the ambulance service is and the pressures our staff and the NHS as a whole have been under the past few days.
‘We are working in partnership but we are facing hospital handover delays, which can prevent us from responding as quickly as we need to.
‘As a Trust, we have experienced our busiest days ever and we know our partners in the hospitals are in the same situation.
‘We had more than 4,200 calls across the East of England that day, more than 1,300 of which were in Essex and more than 250 were in North East Essex.’
Former health minister Norman Lamb responded to the death on Tuesday urging the prime minister not to ‘stand by and allow the NHS to deteriorate’.
GMB regional officer Dave Powell said: ‘I’m sure this case is much more widespread than the public is aware of.
‘My concern is now that we are actually suffering deaths whilst people wait for ambulances.
Former health minister Norman Lamb responded to the death on Tuesday urging the prime minister not to ‘stand by and allow the NHS to deteriorate’
‘On arrival, the crew had sufficient concerns to force entry to the property as the control room could not contact the patient via telephone.
‘Unfortunately, the patient was found deceased in the property and there was nothing the crew could do for her.’
A statement by the ambulance service on Tuesday said the service received more than 4,100 calls on December 31 and around 4,800 on January 1.
‘To put this into content, the trust’s average daily volume of calls is about 3,000 calls a day,’ it added.
Matt Broad, deputy director of service delivery, added: ‘The trust, as well as the wider NHS, is still experiencing incredibly high demand and is under extreme pressure.’
The ambulance service previously said it has had to rely on taxis to take patients to hospital after struggling to cope with a surge in demand over the holiday period.
The MP for North Norfolk constituency, which is served by the ambulance service, said: ‘Paramedics are having to work long shifts because of insufficient workforce.
‘These are the human consequences of the financial state the NHS is in. This is why it’s vital the government acts, the prime minister can’t stand by and allow the NHS to deteriorate.
‘I’ve been making clear that the state that the system is in, it’s inevitable that people will lose their lives and failures of care will mean people will be left with long-term disabilities.
‘One of the major strains is the ambulance service and its link with A&E, problems with handovers and ambulances stacking up, which leads to delays.’
Michael Le Cornu, chairman of the Tendring Pensioners’ Action Group in Essex, said he was disgusted that the woman had been left to die on her own.
He said: ‘It’s terrible that she was left waiting for such a long time. It really is disgusting.
‘We have been worried about this sort of thing happening for some time and have heard similar examples, including in which a 94-year-old died.
‘We are disgusted with the complacent attitude of this particular Government. Until just recently they thought there were no problems with the NHS.’
Pensioner endured 14-hour wait for a bed in A&E as NHS crisis deepens
A pensioner has told how he was forced to wait for a bed for 14 hours in A&E in a stark illustration of the winter crisis gripping the NHS.
Raymond Horner, from Bishop Auckland, said he was ‘shouting in pure agony’ in the A&E department at Darlington Memorial Hospital, as staff struggled to cope with the number of patients and the lack of available beds.
The family of the 84-year-old said the department was ‘horrendously busy’ when they visited just before the New Year, and said patients were having to sit on the floor as they waited to be seen by medical staff.
They also criticised the lack of A&E services at Bishop Auckland Hospital, which they live just a mile away from.
Raymond Horner was forced to wait for a bed for 14 hours in A&E in a stark illustration of the winter crisis gripping the NHS
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust apologised for the delays patients have faced, while Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman described Mr Horner’s experience as ‘very distressing’.
Nationally, Prime Minister Theresa May has already apologised for delays to operations and hospital admissions across the country and, yesterday, an 81-year-old woman from Essex was found dead in her house after waiting almost four hours for an ambulance to arrive when she called 999 complaining of chest pains.
Mr Horner, who used to work as a postman, had previously spent a month in hospital after being diagnosed with urosepsis, but returned home before the New Year.
However, he had to return to A&E last Friday at 7pm to have a blocked catheter changed, and had to wait three hours before he could be seen.
Shirley Horner, his sister-in-law, said: ‘He was in agony – he was shouting and crying and saying he wanted to die.
‘We didn’t know what to do to help him – the staff at the hospital were brilliant but they were so overstretched.’
After returning home, Mr Horner had to return to the A&E department at midnight after developing complications, but he then had to wait 14 hours waiting on a trolley before a bed was available.
‘Our NHS seems to be in the worst state ever – I used to be a nurse and I think
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust apologised for the delays patients have faced
it has changed for the worse,’ said his sister-in-law.
‘An 84-year-old man went through total agony over many hours when it could have been sorted at Bishop Auckland if the services had not been taken away.’
Despite living just a mile away from Bishop Auckland Hospital, the family were still forced to make two trips to the A&E department in Darlington.
‘We have a perfectly good hospital on our doorstep and it cannot be used to change a catheter,’ said Ms Horner.
‘It was a very good hospital but now it is more or less gone.’
Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, said: ‘This is a very distressing experience and the direct result of Tory underfunding of the NHS over seven years.
‘The winter spike in demand was totally predictable and could have been prevented had the PM taken the right decisions at budget time before Christmas.
‘Cuts to Durham County Council have also left social care in a mess and that
has an obvious knock on effect when it comes to older people.’
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, like many hospital trusts, is experiencing very high numbers of patients presenting at our emergency departments, as well as a high number of admissions and demand for beds.
‘Our staff are working incredibly hard to manage these pressures but the number of patients we are seeing means that there have been longer waits in our emergency departments and in admitting patients to wards.
‘We would like to apologise to any patients who have experienced a delay but express our appreciation for the public’s support and understanding while we work to provide safe care during this busy period.’