A MAN who died at his Kidderminster home while an ambulance was on its way from Worcester could still be alive if help had arrived sooner, it has been claimed.

The ambulance took 18 minutes to reach Wesley Billingham from Worcestershire Royal Hospital after he suffered a heart attack.

A neighbour - fetched by Mr Billingham's wife Janet after she had phoned for an ambulance at 10.45pm on June 10 - felt a pulse in the 64-year-old shortly after he fell unconscious. Janet Billingham, whose husband died following a heart attack at their Kidderminster home.

But he was dead by the time paramedics arrived at 11.03pm.

Both Mrs Billingham, of Broadwaters Drive, and Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor say he could still be alive if paramedics had not had to come from Worcester.

The director of operations at Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Steve McGuinness, declined to comment on these claims but expressed sorrow at Mr Billingham's death.

He said it was a very busy evening and no vehicle was available at that time in the Kidderminster area, although he admitted this was "no comfort" to the family.

Wyre Forest's two night crews and the single responder vehicle were all answering calls when Mr Billingham collapsed.

One of these ambulances had just dropped off a patient at Worcester when it had the call to go to Mr Billingham's home.

Since the closure of the blue-light accident and emergency department at Kidderminster Hospital as part of the county health shake-up, ambulances have had to ferry patients 18 miles to the new state-of-the-art facility at Worcester.

This means a delay while they make return journeys to Kidderminster and Mrs Billingham, 59, said the experience had left her traumatised and angry.

"They might not have saved him but had someone been here straight away he stood a better chance.

"But I'll never know now."

The response time was "not good enough" according to Dr Taylor. "In the old days there would have been an ambulance in Kidderminster so it would not have to be travelling such vast distances.

"They could have been at the home from the ambulance station within five minutes. To make any difference for a patient suffering a cardiac arrest you've got to start effective CPR within three minutes of the arrest.

"If somebody arrests in Kidderminster there is no way an ambulance from Worcester can get there in time. It's very difficult for an amateur without any equipment to keep somebody going."

"Mr Billingham might not have died - obviously we can't say that definitely - and his widow will never, ever forget that."

Dr Taylor added: "The primary thing that this demonstrates is that we need emergency services locally so that ambulances aren't on the road all the time and a greater time is spent parked in Kidderminster ambulance station.

"It's another example of totally inadequate service for Wyre Forest."

Mr McGuinness said the ambulance trust exceeded the Government target for attending life-threatening calls within eight minutes three-quarters of the time.

But he added: "The eight-minute standard is for 75 per cent of calls, not for 100 per cent of calls.

"We can't get to everybody as quickly as we would want."

Mr McGuinness said he has offered to meet Mrs Billingham to explain their systems and put her mind at rest as "best he could".