Welsh ambulance waits: My mum died waiting all night for help

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.”

She explained her mum, a former retail worker from Buckley, Flintshire, had suffered increasingly poor health after a heart attack at the age of 52, but it prompted her to live life to the full for the next 20 years.

“I knew that the time my mum had was limited,” said Ms Underhill, who lives in Stourport-on-Severn, West Midlands.

“So you grasp at every hour and keep them for as long as you can.”