A CARING husband whose 75-year-old wife was left lying on the floor for eight hours after a fall has slammed the ambulance service’s response time.

David Chapman, of Main Road, Dovercourt, dialled 999 after his wife slipped out of her wheelchair and fell onto the floor.

Cherry Chapman, suffers from Binswanger’s disease, a form of dementia which limits mobility.

She suffered ligament damage to her knee and injured her hip in the fall, which took place at the couple’s home at about 4.50pm on Friday, August 12.

Mr Chapman, 64, was instructed not to move his wife or pick her up in case of a serious injury.

However they were forced to wait eight hours before an ambulance crew arrived to help.

“She was going in and out of consciousness, had pains in her leg and swelling,” said Mr Chapman.

“We were told it was not treated as an emergency and an ambulance would be with us as soon as one became available.

“I was advised not to move her and not to give her anything to eat.

“Of course it is not the paramedic’s fault so I kept it nice when they finally arrived at 1.15am.

“I know there are problems with a lack of ambulances, but it was awful to have her suffer for that long.”

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We’d like to express our sincere apologies to Mrs Chapman for the time it took us to get help to her, at what was understandably a very distressing time.

“The delay she experienced was inexcusable and is not the standard of service that we accept.

“Unfortunately due to increased levels of demand that day which saw us receive almost 3,000 calls regionally – over 1,000 of which were prioritised as life-threatening calls – we were unable to get an ambulance to her as quickly as we would have wanted to.

“She was cared for at scene by the ambulance crew, and was safe to be left at home, where we hope she is recovering well."