WALES’ health minister hit out at the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST)after the parents of a 31-year-old cancer sufferer waited five hours for an ambulance.

Edwina Hart said she would have expected a quicker response to Nicola Jones, who fell ill at her Cwmtillery home on August 6.

Ms Hart, in a letter to Blaenau Gwent assembly member Trish Law, said she’s called for the trust to give the family reassurances it won’t happen again.

We reported earlier this month how Ms Jones, who had been at her parents’ home for ten days after a six week stretch of treatment for cervical cancer at Velindre Hospital, fell ill on the evening of August 6.

Her GP, having decided she needed an emergency blood transfusion, ordered an ambulance at 5.20pm, but the family say none came until 10.12pm.

Jane and Gerald Jones, of Valley View Road, previously told the Argus they were unsure their daughter was going to survive the night.

In the letter Ms Hart said she was very concerned to read about Nicola’s experience and could “appreciate that it must have been a very stressful and worrying time for her and the family”.

“It is unacceptable for patients to be waiting for prolonged periods of time for an ambulance,” she said.

“I would have expected the WAST to have provided a quicker response, particularly in view of Nicola’s deteriorating condition.”

She said she has also written to the trust’s interim chief executive Elwyn Price-Morris, asking that Miss Jones and her family receive a full explanation.

She also said she would demand a reassurance that “similar situations do not happen again”.

Ms Law told the Argus it is heartening to see the health minister take the matter so seriously.

She added: “Evidently she feels like everyone else, that such delays in ambulance response times are totally unacceptable."

A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Whilst we cannot comment on the details of individual cases, we are sorry for any distress caused to the patient and family.

"A senior ambulance officer recently met them to listen to their concerns and the family will be informed of the outcome of an investigation into the incident."