A CORONER has warned of “extreme pressure” on London’s ambulance services after a pensioner died in Finsbury Park during a five-and-a-half hour wait for medical support.

Assistant coroner for inner north London Melanie Sarah Lee said the high demand for ambulances is causing a “systemic challenge and long delays for patients”, following an inquest into the death of 70-year-old Dorothy Hoyberg.

Ms Hoyberg first called emergency services for severe pain in her leg at around 8am on June 19 last year, and by around 9.30am a paramedic confirmed she would need a category three ambulance – for urgent but not immediately life-threatening conditions – within two hours.

But paramedics did not arrive at Ms Hoyberg’s home until after 3pm, by which time she had passed away.

Ms Lee said: “An ambulance should have reached Dorothy within two hours but it took five-and-a-half. I heard evidence that this is a pan-London problem, and it does not appear to be restricted to London.”

She added: “The demand on ambulance services is increasing and the number of patients requiring their services is increasing. Ambulance services are under extreme pressure and this is causing a systems challenge and long delays for patients.”

On that day, London Ambulance Service (LAS) was operating under extreme pressure and struggling to respond even to patients assessed as higher risk than Ms Hoyberg, the coroner’s report said.

The ambulance service made two phone calls to Ms Hoyberg to check on her as she waited at home.

But after 12.25pm “the demand on LAS was so high that there was no capacity to make any further call backs,” Ms Lee’s report added.

The coroner determined that Ms Hoyberg’s death was drug related, as a post-mortem examination found her to have elevated levels of morphine and methadone – a drug used for treating pain and opioid dependence – in her blood.

“Dorothy was known to have a long-standing history of substance misuse although, as far as her family were aware, she had been stable on methadone for some time,” Ms Lee said.

The coroner’s final report was sent to health secretary Wes Streeting warning that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.