AN elderly woman who broke her collarbone spent more than SIX agonising hours laying on the floor waiting for an ambulance.

The 70-year-old support worker, who fell at a clients home in Ensbury Park, Bournemouth, was also diagnosed with pneumonia following her ordeal. She is currently being treated in hospital.

Her shocked daughter, Samantha Havard said: “This situation, where a 70-year-old woman can lay on the floor in agony with no pain relief for hours waiting for an ambulance is unacceptable in this day and age. Someone will die because of delays like these.”

South Western Ambulance Service has since confirmed, that from the time of the initial call until the time an ambulance was dispatched, they were dealing with 46 time critical life-threatening incidents including heart attacks, possible strokes and a child with breathing difficulties

Samantha, who says something must be done urgently to provide the ambulance service with more resources, added: “The paramedics were absolutely brilliant, it is not their fault. I feel so sorry for them, they’re doing an almost impossible job. You could tell they were as angry about the delay as we were, something just has to give.

“My mum also has the lung condition COPD. We’re not sure if the time spent laying on for floor in so much pain has led to the pneumonia, but I am just so angry about this.”

Samantha, aged 41, from Ferndown, who suffers from a spinal injury herself, said medical staff even urged her to complain about the situation afterwards.“I was told that when they complain themselves, their concerns are just shrugged off,” she added.

Samantha’s mum, who has asked not to be named, was working at a private house on April 1 when she was injured.

Initially she called her daughter, who arrived at the private home and dialled 999 for an ambulance. That first call for help was made around 1pm but no ambulances were available.

At 6.30pm, more than five hours after the initial call, paramedics finally arrived to help. However, there was still no available ambulances.“These paramedics were wonderful, they were appalled by the wait themselves. They gave mum morphine for the pain. It was only when one of them called his manager direct and said my mum needed hospital treatment straight away that we managed to get an ambulance,” said Samantha.

They got to A&E around 8.45pm.

A South Western Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We are really pleased to hear that our staff have been praised for the care and assistance that they offered to the patient during this incident.

“The trust received an initial 999 call at 1307 reporting that a female had fallen and was reported to have sustained a suspected arm injury, and was triaged as ‘not considered life threatening’. A second call was received at 1638 and a paramedic was on scene at 1659 and began treating the patient.”