A WOMAN is launching a petition against ambulance service cuts after her father died in her car.

John Wye faced a four-hour wait for an ambulance after a carer called the service, despite him being in agony.

The carer then informed Lynne Wye, of Chelwater, Chelmsford, who drove from her house to pick up her dad and take him to Chelmsford’s Broomfield Hospital.

Mr Wye, 73, from Southminster, who was regularly checked at the hospital’s urology department, then had a heart attack in her car as they passed through Purleigh.

Veterinary nurse Hayley Hinton and receptionist Joy Storey performed CPR on Mr Wye in the car park of Edgewood Veterinary Surgery, in the village, after a second call to the ambulance service was made.

Miss Wye, whose three-year-old son was in the car at the time, said: “It’s just shocking that they couldn’t get a first responder out in the first place.

“Dad had ongoing appointments at the urology clinic in Broomfield.

“He was admitted in February last year with a bad infection and he had been back and forth with long waits for ambulances.

“It was a minimum of two hours, but usually a four-hour wait for an ambulance.

“On this occasion, I said if it’s going to be four hours again, I’d pick him up.”

Mr Wye, who had a major stroke in 1998, did not drive and had carers visiting him three times a day.

Mum-of-one Miss Wye, 36, said: “I don’t know if my dad could have been saved, but he could have been treated with a defibrillator.

“Being told you have a four-hour wait could have contributed to the heart attack.”

An ambulance service spokesman said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with Mr Wye’s family at this time.

“We would ask the family to contact us direct to discuss our response.”

Miss Wye’s petition can be viewed at www.change. org/en-GB/petitions/secretary-of-state-for-health-stop-the-funding-cuts-to-the-ambulance-service