A WIFE has spoken of her dismay after her terminally-ill husband was left waiting in an ambulance outside Broomfield Hospital.

Frances Pocock dialled 999 on Sunday afternoon after husband Roger, of Blackwater Close, Heybridge, began suffering serious pain.

However, because of a surge in demand, the ambulance was forced to wait outside Broomfield A&E for two hours in soaring temperatures.

Frances said: My husband has got terminal cancer. Roger was given six weeks to live nine weeks ago so he is on borrowed time.

“He had been feeling off on Saturday. Then on Sunday things got really bad again and I rang 999 to try and get someone to come out.

“When we go there we found out we were ninth in a queue of ambulances that couldn’t get anyone in to A&E.

“He was in pain and all he had in the ambulance was morphine and gas fridges.”

Mrs Pocock said Roger, 56, had originally been told he faced a four hour wait before pleas from the ambulance crew cut the wait to two hours.

She added: “It was absolutely boiling and was uncomfortable for all the patients stuck out there.

“It is terrible. We were out there for two hours and yet we were the lucky ones.

“It was only because we kept moaning and moaning, and the ambulance crews kept going in and explaining how urgent the situation was that we got saw in two hours.

“A lot of the other people out there had to wait four or five hours, like we were told we might have to at first.”

A spokesman for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust said: “We apologise sincerely for any inconvenience or discomfort experienced as a result of the delay.

“Unfortunately there are times when our A&E department experiences a surge in demand and regrettably patients have a longer waiting time to be seen and treated.

“At these times we work closely with our colleagues in the ambulance service to ensure patients receive safe care.”