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A woman has shared a shocking video of the nine-hour wait her elderly mum was forced to endure in an ambulance.
Irene, aged 84, was forced to wait in the vehicle because there were no beds available when she arrived at Torbay Hospital in Torquay at 8.30 am on 30 December.
During the long wait, which saw Irene and her daughter, Jacqui Fry, still in the same predicament at 5:30 pm, Jacqui decided to film what was happening.
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She revealed that far from being a one-off, her elderly mother, who she cares for and suffers from a chronic lung condition, was one of many people waiting in ambulances outside the hospital.
Filming the rows of vehicles, an emotional Jacqui said: "This is our NHS. The elderly suffer, everybody that needs the NHS suffers."
Jacqui explained that she did not film the shocking footage, which featured multiple ambulances, to shame any of the staff, but to shed light on the crisis currently taking place in the NHS.
She told ITV West Country: "I just wanted people to realise how bad things were, I know people say 'oh yeah, we know'.
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"But do they realise that there are people sitting in those ambulances for hours?"
Jacqui then urged anyone shocked by the footage to do their bit to help the NHS keep things moving for the people who need beds the most.
She said: "We need to free up beds so that the ambulance crews can go out and help the people that are calling 999 - the ones that are having heart attacks, the ones that have [fallen] and broken their hips.
"We need to do something."
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She recommended that if you have a relative in the hospital who doesn't need urgent care, you should collect them so that their bed can be used by someone arriving at A&E.
Thankfully, Irene did eventually get a bed in the hospital, and Jacqui said that she is now out of the hospital and continuing her recovery at home.
She stressed that prior to calling 999, her mum had followed the advice of seeking out her GP and dialling 111 until her condition deteriorated into an emergency situation.
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The ongoing crisis in the NHS is being worsened by industrial action that's set to continue into January.
As reported by iNews, ambulance workers will be walking out on the 11th and 23rd of January while nurses will be striking on the 18th and 19th of this month.
Tyla has reached out to Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust for comment.
Featured Image Credit: ITV News