FAMILY of a woman who had to wait in agonising pain for nearly four hours for an ambulance say they are not satisfied with the explanation.

Eric Dennington, whose 95-year-old mother Nora did not get to hospital until four hours and 51 minutes after the ambulance was requested, is to press his MP Therese Coffey for a full investigation.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust has apologised to the family and says the call had come at a time when resources were outweighed by demand.

Mr Dennington, 73, who lives with his wife Joyce at Dawson Drive, Trimley St Mary, said: “I am pretty disgusted really by what they have sent – I think they are passing the buck.

“In the letter they say they spoke to my mum and she was on the home number and she was ‘chatting away and apparently no worse’.”

“She hasn’t even got her own phone – and I was with her all afternoon and she didn’t speak to anybody. She was in so much pain she couldn’t really speak at all, not even to me.

“I am not very happy about their explanation. I have been in touch with my MP, Dr Coffey, and I am now waiting to see what she has to say about it.”

Mr Dennington had expected a 999 ambulance to be called for his mum, who was suffering severe stomach pains, but ambulance officials say they were requested only to send non-emergency transport.

The request was made at 3.31pm with an ambulance sent at 6.36pm, arriving at 7.01pm at Deben View care home in Woodbridge. It was then decided a paramedic was needed – the paramedic was requested at 7.28pm, arriving at 7.37pm, and Mrs Dennington arrived at 8.22pm at Ipswich Hospital, where she died the next day.

“Unfortunately demand was extremely high with many 999 calls as well as urgent GP admissions like this. There were also ambulances unable to handover patients at hospital due to a high number of admissions which meant delays in them becoming available,” said an ambulance trust spokeswoman.