WAITING up to 10 hours for an ambulance is "totally unacceptable" and NHS managers should stop making excuses for delays, Gwent politicians said yesterday.

Since last Thursday the Argus has reported cases of patients waiting in agony for up to 10 hours for an ambulance, while one man with serious burns had to be taken to hospital in a fire engine because there were no ambulances available.

The Assembly government have admitted increased demand on services has led to delays, but Gwent assembly members said yesterday that the current situation was not acceptable and Newport West AM Rosemary Butler will meet health minister Edwina Hart to discuss the situation later this week.

“The vast majority of patients who use ambulances are responded to quickly and receive excellent treatment. Unfortunately there have been too many cases recently where there have been totally unacceptable delays," said Mrs Butler.

Torfaen assembly member Lynne Neagle said she was "appalled" by the stories highlighted in the Argus and brought to her by constituents over the last few days.

She said that while paramedics and ambulance staff do an "incredible job" under very difficult circumstances, it was "simply unacceptable" that anyone should have to wait so long for an ambulance to arrive.

She added that the delays were particularly frustrating when many of the underlying reasons - such as hand over times at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital - were long standing.

She said: "I think people locally are fed up with excuses from NHS managers - we simply have to see an urgent improvement to the ambulance service on the ground.”

Newport East AM John Griffiths said he had also been in touch with Edwina Hart in the last few weeks to raise cases of long waits brought to him by constituents, but said he believed Ms Hart was committed to tackling the issue.

He added: "Undoubtedly we have to drive forward improvements to the ambulance service and the accident and emergency department, and the interchange between the two."