Michael Newton suffered chest pains at his home in Seaton

Michael Newton, 71, suffered chest pains at his home in Seaton in Devon and an ambulance turned up to take him to hospital.

But his family say it was 85 minutes later that he arrived at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

Mr Newton's wife, Elaine, said the family wanted an official apology and a reassurance that it would not happen again to anyone else.

Mr Newton has been in hospital for nearly two weeks after suffering a heart attack.

A shift change may have taken place en route to hospital

Mrs Newton said the whole family were distressed by the events surrounding her husband's admission to hospital on 24 January.

They want to know why there was a delay and why there was an apparent 20-minute break at an ambulance station in Honiton for a shift change.

Mrs Newton said: "When I go in the car from our home to the hospital in Exeter it takes me 40 minutes.

"But with my husband being an emergency I thought it would take them about 25 to 30 minutes. What took them so long to get to the hospital?

"What would have happened if he had had a cardiac arrest on the way and he had died. Would they have just told me he died on the way to hospital?

We are very concerned with the content of the complaint and we take it extremely seriously Michael Willis, Westcountry Ambulance Service

"Would they have told me they changed shifts and left him in the ambulance?"

Mrs Newton said she became very distressed when her daughter telephoned from the hospital to say she could not understand why the ambulance was taking so long.

The Westcountry Ambulance Service NHS Trust said it was investigating the Newtons' claims.

Michael Willis, of the Trust, said: "We are very concerned with the content of the complaint and we take it extremely seriously.

Gave medication

"We apologise for any inconvenience it caused.

"We are undertaking a full investigation into the matter and once that has been completed we will write to Mr and Mrs Newton setting out all of our findings."

Mrs Newton said her husband was given aspirin and nitro-glycerine outside the house by the ambulance crew.

She said he had received excellent care in hospital, but was now waiting for a heart bypass operation.