The family of a pensioner who died on the floor in agony after waiting more than five hours for an ambulance have described her ordeal as "heartbreaking".

Frail 91-year-old Phyllis Hopley-Dodd suffered a broken hip after falling at St Winifreds care home in Deal.

Staff called 999 shortly before 6.30pm, but it was almost midnight before paramedics arrived at the site in London Road.

Mrs Hopley-Dodd's granddaughter, Sarah Quinn, says it was devastating to see her grandmother in so much pain in her final moments.

"No one should have to wait that long for an ambulance," she said.

"She was in pain for her last five hours.

"At 91, when she's not going to be here for much longer, she should be in bed, comfortable, and have her family around her.

"She shouldn't have been lying on the floor, undignified.

"The worse thing was that she was in pain and she didn't need to be."

Mrs Hopley-Dodd's daughter received a call from St Winifreds at 6.20pm on Thursday, informing her that her mother had suffered a fall and an ambulance had been called.

Ms Quinn was alerted at just after 8pm and went straight to the care home, where staff checked on the progress of the emergency call.

"She'd been on the floor for over two hours by this point," Ms Quinn said.

"The whole time, my grandma was saying she was in pain and asking why no one was helping her.

"We knew she had massive aneurysms and that any injury could cause a rupture, so her having this fall was awful.

"I phoned the ambulance again at 9.30pm.

"I had to go through what happened all over again. She was having chest pains, pains in her lower stomach, and was vomiting.

"Nothing seemed to make the ambulance come any quicker and my grandmother didn't seem to be a priority.

"I kept being told they would get there as quickly as they could."

By 11.30pm the ambulance had still not arrived and Mrs Hopley-Dodd had been on the floor for almost five and a half hours.

"I called again and was told it would be there in 20 minutes," Ms Quinn said.

"My grandmother had got to the point where she wasn't responsive, and she was gasping for her last breath of air."

Ms Quinn says the ambulance arrived "too little too late", with paramedics saying Mrs Hopley-Dodd would likely die if they attempted to take her to hospital.

"I think this is grossly wrong that someone has been left like that..."

They instead decided to get her into bed to make her comfortable in her final moments, but she died before this could happen, at about midnight - almost six hours after the initial 999 call.

"They didn't even get her into bed as she passed away while the paramedic was talking to us," Ms Quinn said.

"I think this is grossly wrong that someone has been left like that."

Ms Quinn describes the paramedics who arrived at the care home as "fantastic", and says they were not in any way at fault.

"They get told where to go by the hub, and I just felt that because my grandmother was 91 she wasn't a priority," she said. "I thought she would be because of her age and medical history.

"If someone had come out at any time and assessed her we would have known to get family down and make her comfortable.

"All she had was paracetamol. She felt no one was helping her or cared.

"I appreciate the NHS is busy and has to prioritise people, but at the end of the day she was a frightened old lady."

Ms Quinn says something needs to be done about ambulance waiting times to avoid similar incidents.

"If the NHS hasn't got enough staff, then the government needs to be recruiting people," she said.

"My grandmother has always worked and always paid her taxes, but then to be treated like that at the end of her life is heartbreaking. Something went wrong."

Waiting times for the ambulances have hit record levels this year, with exhausted and depleted hospital teams struggling to cope with high demand for services.

Earlier this year, KentOnline reported how patients calling 999 after suffering serious conditions such as strokes had been left waiting an average of 39 minutes for an ambulance in March.

In July this figure rose to more than 42 minutes, before dropping to 35 minutes and 29 seconds in August.

In the same month, a grieving family from Herne Bay told how ambulance delays forced them to keep their loved one in a bedroom for six hours.

Christopher Mizon, 87, died at his home shortly after 5pm, but he could not be moved until paramedics - who arrived at about 9.30pm - could pronounce him dead.

Mrs Hopley-Dodd's death has been passed to the coroner's office, which will establish the cause and if any recommendations need to be made.

A South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, (SECAmb), spokesperson said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with the family for their loss."

"We take all concerns seriously and are very sorry that, due to a number of outstanding calls requiring a response, it took longer than is expected for us to attend this call.

"We would invite the family to contact us directly so that we can look into their concerns for them in detail.”

They added the call originated as a Category 3 call, for which the national target is to respond to nine out of 10 times, within two hours.