King's Lynn patient forced to wait in ambulance for 12 hours

The hospital apologised to Mervyn Jones and his family, describing current pressures as "extreme"

A hospital has apologised after an elderly man was forced to wait in the back of an ambulance for almost 12 hours.

Mervyn Jones, 92, was kept outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn because no beds were available.

The Trust and the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) said there was "extreme" pressure on emergency care.

Mr Jones' daughter Sarah said handover delays could mean "somebody else is going to not make it to the hospital".

Mr Jones, who suffers from heart problems, developed dangerously low blood oxygen levels at his home in Litcham, Norfolk on 27 December.

His family called for an ambulance at 08.30 GMT which arrived within 20 minutes, despite them being initially told it could take up to nine hours to arrive.

But Mr Jones was not admitted to hospital until 20.50.

His daughter said he was tended by staff in the vehicle but there had been multiple shift changes during that time.

Ambulances queueing outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on the day Mr Jones arrived

Ms Jones said: "We had people come in and take bloodwork and the doctor ordered a chest X-ray.

"So once it was his turn to go in for the X-ray they had to take him out in the rain - right out on the stretcher into the hospital - and then bring him back into the ambulance."

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Mr Jones, in a recording made by his daughter while inside the ambulance, said: "It's a shame that £200,000 worth of equipment is wasted, just providing bed space for people".

Mervyn Jones' daughter praised the way ambulance staff did their best to keep her father occupied

The family praised the ambulance staff who they say did their best to make Mr Jones comfortable and keep him occupied.

"They took really good care of dad," said Ms Jones.

She added: "At one point in the afternoon one of the paramedics actually did the Wi-Fi hotspot on her phone so that dad could watch something that he likes to watch on one of their iPads."

'Extreme pressures'

In the month to 25 December, almost 2,400 hours were lost at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital due to ambulance handover delays, according to NHS England data.

George Briggs, interim chief operating officer at the hospital, said: "Our health and care system continues to experience high levels of demand.

"This is not the care we would want to give and we apologise profusely to those patients who have experienced unacceptable waits when pressures on our emergency services have been extreme.

"Our emergency department staff are working closely with health and care colleagues to make sure patients are seen as quickly as possible and treated appropriately."

An ambulance spokesman said: "Following a challenging period over the holidays, EEAST currently remains at 'business continuity incident status', although we are reviewing this daily.

"We would like to remind the public to continue to use 999 for life-threatening illness or serious injuries only, and to use 111 for all other health concerns."