'NHS needs to change': Mother of four died before Christmas after 11-hour ambulance wait

As the NHS continues to struggle, it is patients that are being hit the hardest - Libby Wiener reports

A devastated fiancé has told ITV News that the 'NHS needs to change' after his partner died following an 11-hour wait for an ambulance just days before Christmas.

Mother-of-four Hannah Houghton suffered from cystic fibrosis and became short of breath when her fiancé James Jackman called for an ambulance.

Having called for an ambulance at 7.20pm, first responders made it to the house at 6.15am the next day.

She was then rushed to hospital where medical professionals discovered her blood pressure was extremely low.

'I sat with her for ten minutes and told her I loved her... and then she went.'

Once she arrived at the hospital, she was moved to the an intensive care unit.

In the early hours of December 22, she told James she wanted to see him before going into cardiac arrest and dying.

Mr Jackman believes the outcome could have been different if an ambulance had arrived sooner - and blames the government for the state of the NHS.

Family friends have now set up a GoFundMe page to help the family with financial costs relating to the funeral.

'The staff are fantastic, but they are hindered by red tape. They are being held back'

New figures have showcased that last month one in four patients waited for more than an hour to be transported to A&E.

They also illustrated that once patients arrived at Accident and Emergency departments across England, a third waited more than four hours to be seen - and almost 38,000 people waited more than 12 hours to be treated, according to NHS England.

The change in waiting times marks a 355% increase on the previous year.

Over the weekend, more than a dozen critical incidents were declared at hospital trusts around the country.

'She was liked by so many, she was loved.'

In an email leaked to ITV News, it has been revealed that ambulances in London will only wait for 45 minutes before leaving patients on trolleys in corridors to be looked after by hospital staff.

The decision comes amid growing pressure on the NHS, with paramedics often left waiting for hours outside hospitals before being able to hand over patients to overstretched A&E departments.

With crews then delayed attending new 999 calls, today an email was sent to management at hospitals across London making it clear that ambulances would limit the time they were willing to wait.

The prime minister's own spokesman admitted today that the current pressure on the health service amounts to an "unprecedented challenge".

Fall-out from the NHS struggles has been blamed on the pandemic by Health Secretary, Stephen Barclay - citing the backlog of delayed operations and patients now seeking treatment in greater numbers.

The doctors' union, the BMA have said the situation for both patients and staff is now dire.

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