A WHITCHURCH man has said he believes a 'terrible' experience he witnessed recently in Telford - in which a woman in her 80s was forced to wait five hours for an ambulance - would be even worse in the town.

Jonathan Terry was helping friends move into a new house in Telford over the weekend when an 80-year-old neighbour slipped and fell over a curb while she was welcoming them.

Jonathan said he immediately ran over to give her first aid and called an ambulance but was told he would be waiting five hours for one to arrive, despite Telford's Princess Royal Hospital being nearby.

While the neighbour was ultimately cared for, Jonathan fears it would be even worse if a similar situation happened in his home town and thought about the impact on people he knows.

"It just scares the hell out of me if I had an accident in my back garden," he explained.

"Or if my wife tripped down the stairs.

"How long would it take?

"I think if you ring for an ambulance, you should have an ambulance with you within half an hour.

"But in north Shropshire, it seems we get forgotten about for everything."

Jonathan has a neighbour in his 90s and he spoke about his fear if they had a trip and had to call an ambulance.

He said: "He is about and about and doing loads of stuff.

"I dread to think if he had a trip and had to call an ambulance.

"How long would it take?"

Jonathan emphasised he believed NHS staff do an 'amazing' job under pressure, but added the service is at breaking point.

He added: "In no way do I hold the amazing staff of the NHS responsible.

"They do an amazing job under the ever-increasing pressures put on them with the ever-decreasing resources allocated to them, but it is breaking."

The Whitchurch man is 'fed up' with hearing from politicians about how the service is a problem and has called on them to fix the issue.

"All we hear, is 'we are going to fix it and it's a systemic problem," he said.

"Everyone, including myself, is fed up of hearing it is a problem.

"Fix it, that is what you are vote in for and what you are paid to do."

He has also written to North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan as part of her campaign to improve ambulance service in the county, plus Telford MP Lucy Allan.

West Midlands Ambulance Service have confirmed paramedics were called to the address on Saturday but added they received a call from the woman's carers saying she was unhurt and mobilising with no pain.

A spokesman said: "We were called at 11.30am on Saturday to reports of an elderly woman who had fallen outside and hurt her arm.

"It was triaged as a Category 3 call, the second lowest, where we should get to 90 percent of patients in two hours.

"A second phone call was received a few minutes later to update us that the woman had been taken inside.

"A third call was received from the woman’s carers at 1.09pm saying that the patient was unhurt, mobilising with no pain, but they wanted her checked over.

"The case was re-triaged as a category four call, the lowest level of urgency, where we have a further three hours to get to 90 percent of patients.

"An ambulance arrived at 4.49pm, but the patient refused assessment and the crew departed shortly afterwards.

"The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.

"Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call.

"We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives."