HOW has it come to this?

The tragic story of Jeanette Hawkins has an all too familiar ring to it.

Her heartbroken son has painfully retold the details of the day she passed away...after waiting five unacceptable hours for an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

By the time paramedics got to Kim’s mum she was hallucinating and her skin had turned a dark shade of grey.

The next day she passed away.

Her family are understandable angry and upset. They want answers.

How can you call an ambulance at lunchtime and it not get to you until 7.15pm that evening?

A post-mortem result showed Jeanette died of blood poisoning caused by internal complications.

The family has put in a formal complaint to the Patient and Liaison Services and is awaiting a response - a full and thorough investigation has been promised. And so there should be.

A few years ago a story like this was shocking.

A sad fact about the so-called modern, civilised society we now live in is this type of story sounds familiar. That’s so wrong.

It’s time for politicians to do their jobs, stop playing smoke and mirrors with NHS funding and make sure our ambulances can get to those who need them in time to have a chance of saving them.