A grieving family forced by ambulance delays to keep their loved one in a bedroom for six hours after he died have hit out at the "undignified" way he was treated.

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

His sister-in-law, Elaine Leeks, phoned the emergency services once she realised he had died, only to be told by a call handler: "Open the windows and the curtains because he will be there a long time."

The 65-year-old says the family then spent the duration of the distressing ordeal huddled in the kitchen, while her brother-in-law lay lifeless in his bedroom.

"I went in there a couple times to apologise to him," Mrs Leeks said.

"I told him, 'Chris, you don’t deserve this, you should be taken care of, I’m sorry'.

Mrs Leeks believes ambulance teams may not have attended until the following day if she had not repeatedly called them.

"When they came to pick him up, rigor mortis had begun to set in because he had been there a long time," she said.

"It’s shocking - nobody deserves that.

"He was ready to go, but not in the undignified way that he went..."

"It should have been a couple of hours at the most - it was awful.

"I know they’re stretched for money and all that, and I don’t know what the answer is, but it shouldn’t have taken so long.

“He had dementia and cancer, and he was old - he was ready to go, but not in the undignified way that he went."

The charity Age UK advises that following a death at home, the deceased's GP should be contacted, but Mrs Leeks was unable to call on Saturday as the practice was closed.

Only once a doctor or paramedic has officially pronounced a person dead can a body be collected.

It was not until 11pm that Mr Mizon's body was finally taken away by funeral directors.

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

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

A spokesman for South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with Mr Mizon’s family for their loss and for any distress caused by the timeframe taken for us to attend.

"Having recently been contacted by the family, we will look into their concerns before responding to them directly.”

As they are received, 999 calls are categorised by urgency in levels from one to five, with category one being the most time-sensitive and category five the least.

While they are dealt with on an individual basis, a call-out for a confirmation of death is likely to have been marked as category three.

The national target for category three calls is that they are responded to within two hours, 90% of the time.