The distressed family of a collapsed pensioner waited more than 15 minutes for an ambulance – despite the fact there was a station only 100 yards away.
Alfred Parry, known as Pip, died outside his Ledbury flat on Monday morning.
Family and neighbours desperately tried to resuscitate the 81-year-old after he collapsed but he was pronounced dead later that day in hospital.
Angry residents have now organised a petition criticising the “unacceptable delay of approximately 25 minutes”. Ambulance service officials claim paramedics were on the scene in 17 minutes.
The Lawnside Road residents are asking why Ledbury Station, 100 yards away, was unmanned at 10am.
This week Mr Parry’s niece Jo Hill, 35, said that although a quicker ambulance may not have saved her uncle, the delay may have meant the difference between life and death for someone else.
She said her 12-year-old daughter Jemma had spent a traumatic 12 minutes performing heart compressions on her great uncle.
Mrs Hill said: “We were sat in the flat and he collapsed outside.
“I went straight out and could tell things weren’t right so I shouted to Jemma to call the ambulance.”
Mrs Hill said they were instructed to carry out heart compressions, which Jemma performed, but after more than 10 minutes they called 999 again to find out where help was.
Another uncle ran to the nearby ambulance station, only 100 yards away, to find it closed.
He also went by foot to the nearby hospital but was told to wait for an ambulance.
Mrs Hill said an ambulance had eventually arrived from Bromyard 25 minutes later.
She said: “I would say it was about 25 minutes but somebody told me it was 33. It just took forever.
“It’s not so much the ambulance that came, they were great, what angers me more is that that station was there and it was shut. This wasn’t a strange time, and it’s in the middle of a town.
“They probably couldn’t have saved Pip and that’s fine, but I know Pip would never have wanted a little baby to have fallen or something like that because they wouldn’t have stood a chance. If the petition helps save somebody else then that’s fine.”
West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed they received a call to Lawnside Road at 9.52am on Monday and it was put in the most serious category – immediately life threatening.
The service said the Ledbury-based ambulance was dealing with an elderly man who had collapsed in Malvern at the time of the call.
It said the Trust always sent the closest available vehicle and at the time that was an ambulance en route from Hereford to Bromyard, which the Trust said took 17 minutes to arrive.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Every effort was made to reach the patient as quickly as possible.
“Although there were no Community First Responders booked on duty in the area at the time, staff in the Emergency Operations Centre rang a number of the responders but were unfortunately unable to raise any.
“At the time of the call there was a high level of demand in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
“The Trust always sends the nearest available vehicle to incidents and our staff work very hard to ensure the highest level of care is always available.
“This was a tragic incident; to their credit, a number of members of the public attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) under the guidance of the staff in the Emergency Operations Centre in Bransford, while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.
“It is always deeply regrettable when a patient dies in such circumstances.
“The Trust has already started examining the details of the case to see if there are any lessons that can be learnt.”
