A family doctor was told off for dialling 999 after finding an 88-year-old patient wedged behind her front door with a suspected broken hip.

Lydney GP Dr Roy Sharma discovered the frail old lady during a home visit.

After battling to get in, he discovered she had been there for about an hour while trying to crawl to the phone to summon help.

But when he called 999 to say she needed to be taken to hospital as quickly as possible for an X-ray and assessment because he feared a broken hip, the operator demanded to know why he had rung the emergency number.

"When I was asked why I had dialled 999 because the situation was not immediately life threatening, I saw red," he said.

"If an 88-year-old lying on the floor with a possible fracture is not considered an emergency, they have clearly lost the plot.

"They seem to have forgotten what they are there to do."

He said although the woman was not dying from her injuries, she was in a lot of pain and falls can prove fatal.

He believes the operator then wasted time by asking if he had a defibrillator.

"The problem is that they have people reading a script from a computer who cannot make a judgement on individual cases," he said.

"They want to tick all the boxes like getting a defibrillator there in five minutes.

"Instead of technicians following protocols, they need experienced paramedics making proper judgements."

Dr Sharma is worried about what will happen when Great Western Ambulance Service merges with South Western Ambulance Service.

"We need a separate service for the Forest," he said.

"When you are covering a large area and are under pressure to meet targets, you spend most of the time running around cities rather than sending ambulances to 88-year-old women on the floor in the Forest of Dean."

Dr Sharma has told MP Mark Harper that the ambulance service in the Forest is 'outrageous'.

Newent councillor Len Lawton also asked the MP to investigate after 99-year-old Bert Bullock waited for 90 minutes.

The family of Elsie Riddle from Newnham-on-Severn, who died six days after being forced to wait for an ambulance are also fighting for better services.

Mr Harper said: "This is obviously an important issue, given the critical role paramedics play in dealing with emergency and life-threatening conditions.

" I am raising these concerns with the local ambulance service with the aim of ensuring that Foresters receive the best possible standard of care in future."

A GWAS spokesman said there was a dedicated phone number for doctors dealing with non life-threatening emergencies.

"We are confident that the way we responded to this incident, and the care we provided to the patient, was entirely appropriate," said a spokesman.

"In these situations, it is important for us to determine the nature of the emergency and what facilities – such as a defibrillator – are available to the clinician on the scene to provide essential life-support while we are en route.

"In this instance, a paramedic in a rapid- response vehicle was assigned to the incident as soon as the GP's 999 call reached the GWAS switchboard – and the paramedic was on scene within five minutes, while the GP was still on the phone to our call-handler.

"This allowed the GP to leave his patient in our care and the paramedic was able to assess the patient while a back-up ambulance crew was en route. "This was on scene less than 40 minutes after the GP's call and the patient was conveyed to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital."