Mum died during 13-hour wait for an ambulance

When Jean Frickel fell ill, her family called an ambulance so she could get the crucial life-extending help she needed.

But she died before it arrived. She had waited for 13 hours.

The head of Wales' ambulance service said the number of hours lost while crews waited to hand over patients had quadrupled since 2018.

One patient in Wales waited 46 hours and 46 minutes - almost two days - for an ambulance after a fall.

Jean's case is one of 39 across England and Wales over the past two years where coroners have called for changes to the system to prevent these avoidable deaths.

A coroner ruled Jean's 13-hour wait was because ambulances were queuing to offload patients and unable to answer 999 calls.

Jean's daughter, Helen Underhill, 62, said: "It’s unforgiveable that an ambulance should be waiting outside hospital for someone to be seen, when somebody else is sitting at home, like my mum, in need.

"It’s not the doctors, it’s not the nurses, it’s not the paramedics. It’s getting the ambulances back on the road."

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Source: BBC News, 8 August 2024