Callers seeking an emergency 999 ambulance response in Hertfordshire have been told they could face waits of up to 14 hours, it has emerged.

The delays were reported to a meeting of the county's health and wellbeing board on March 16, in response to a question from physics teacher Clare Byrne.

Ms Byrne told the meeting that a fellow member of Bricket Wood Community Choir fell recently after a rehearsal but was told by a call handler it could take 10 hours for an ambulance to reach her.

Ms Byrne said an ambulance arrived after around three hours and the injured woman was taken to hospital, but it was only when she raised the issue at the meeting that Ms Byrne found out at least one patient had been warned they may have to wait even longer.

Beverley Flowers, from the Hertfordshire and West Essex integrated care system, reported in the past year, the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) had predicted waits of up to 14 hours.

But she stressed that these predictions were always dependent on the level of clinical need.

She also pointed to data that showed that on average, life threatening calls categorised as 'C1', were actually responded to within nine minutes.

The average response time for C2 calls - classed as 'serious incidents' - was 37 minutes while 'urgent' C3 calls take on average 103 minutes to respond to.

C3 calls are still classed as ‘urgent’, but the data presented to the board shows the average response time was 103 minutes and three seconds.

'Less urgent' averaged 148 minutes but some patients in this category have waited over six hours.

According to the EEAST, every patient is triaged according to clinical need.

Following the meeting, a spokesperson for the EEAST told the Local Democracy Reporting Service said: "Demand for our service remains very high, and staff sickness and handover delays at hospitals are also having an impact on our ability to reach patients as quickly as we would like.

"We’re continuing to work closely with our healthcare partners to keep patients safe and reduce delays wherever we can.

"The public can help us to get to the most urgent cases by using NHS 111 service for healthcare advice in non-urgent cases. Please continue to call 999 if it’s a life-threatening emergency."