A NEWPORT man was forced to wait more than seven hours for an ambulance.

Brian Gatehouse, 70, of Hampshire Crescent in Lliswerry, was visited by his doctor on Monday afternoon and was told he would need to be admitted to hospital for suspected kidney stones.

His doctor phoned an ambulance at around 2.15pm to refer him to hospital, but when the ambulance hadn't arrived by almost 6.00pm, his wife Janet Gatehouse, 52, a liaison officer at the National Statistics office, phoned 999 to find out where it was.

She was told the ambulance service was extremely busy at that time and was asked if she would like the call upgrading to 999 and she said yes.

Mrs Gatehouse said that during the wait, Mr Gatehouse "was in extreme pain for this time and being sick."

Despite the call being upgraded to 999, it was another three-and-a-half hours before an ambulance arrived at approximately 9.30pm to take Mr Gatehouse to the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Mrs Gatehouse said: "I was disgusted, I could have got a taxi, but when you've upgraded it to 999 you expect it in about 20 minutes, it was three and-a-half hours.

"The ambulance crew, I can't fault them, they were marvellous."

Mr Gatehouse underwent an emergency operation for his kidney stones yesterday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the Ambulance trust said: "We were extremely sorry that we were not able to provide the patient with the timely care and service he needed. This was due to the high emergency demand in the area at the time, with all available crews committed to emergencies."