A WOMAN has spoken of her anger after her 95-year-old mother was left lying on the floor waiting for an ambulance for nearly five hours after suffering a nasty fall in her Nether Stowey home.

Aileen “Jackie” Slade fell backwards in her kitchen at 7.30pm last Monday evening, landing heavily on the floor and hitting her head. “I saw it happen”, her daughter Rosemary said. “One minute she was holding on to her walker and the next minute she was falling”.

Rosemary, 60, phoned 999 three times over the next few hours but each time was told by call operators that they were inundated but that an emergency ambulance would be sent as soon as possible.

“I was in a terrible state” said Rosemary. I had called two of our friends who came and sat with me and mum, thinking that an ambulance would be with us within an hour or so.

"As the hours passed I became more distraught, I could not believe this was happening and I was terrified that mum could have broken her back or fractured her skull.

"She is a very strong woman, but after hours of waiting in pain, she said to me 'just let me die'.

An ambulance eventually arrived at about 12.20am.

Aileen is being treated in Musgrove Park Hospital. She has had a CT scan, is very bruised and has a chest infection but it is not believed she has broken any bones.

“When the ambulance crew did arrive, they were very kind and very professional, but I cannot believe it took that long. Surely a local first responder could have been sent in the first instance” said Rosemary.

“I am just so angry, it seems incomprehensible and inexcusable that an elderly lady had to suffer in this way”.

Rosemary has complained to the South West Ambulance Service Trust which said it is investigating the matter.