Ambulance waits: Man died of sepsis after 14-hour no-show

On the night of Wednesday 4 December he began suffering pain in his leg so severe it forced him to sleep downstairs.

Mrs Towndrow said: “By three in the morning, he phoned me because he couldn’t wake me, he was in agony.”

She called NHS Direct and was told there was concern it might be deep-vein thrombosis (DVT).

Because of that concern, Mrs Towndrow was told to get an out-of-hours GP and ring for an ambulance, which she did at 06:00 on Thursday morning.

She was told there could be a wait of four hours.

“If only it was just four hours,” she said.

“I certainly rang another one or two times after and was told at one point it would be at least another eight hours, and that wasn’t eight hours including the four I was originally told.

“So however many hours I was told I was aware that wouldn’t be before one in the morning.”