Elderly patients face 14-hour ambulance waits for falls, with one dying after getting trapped under a bed, a regulator warned.

The delays have led the Care Quality Co1mmission to rate South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) NHS Foundation Trust as ­inadequate.

Its damning report said one patient waited 14 hours for help from the service, which serves seven million people in Hampshire, ­Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

The CQC said delays also contributed to the death of an elderly patient who had fallen and got trapped under their bed.

Deanna ­Westwood, CQC director for the south, said: “Staff told us about the day before our inspection when a patient had been on the floor for up to 14 hours, following a fall, before the crew arrived.

“There were frequent and prolonged delays in reaching people… and this resulted in poor outcomes for some.”

It comes as analysis of Office for National ­Statistics data by the Financial Times suggested the collapse of NHS emergency care in England may cost 500 lives a week.

Meanwhile bosses at trusts in Plymouth, Gloucestershire, Leicester, Worcestershire, Birmingham and ­Cornwall have been summoned by Health Secretary Steve Barclay to “ensure accountability” over ­ambulance delays.

Rachel Harrison, national officer at the GMB union, which ­represents 20,000 ambulance staff, said: “Members describe waiting up to 10 hours to hand patients over to ­ hospitals and a third of our ­ambulance members believe they’ve been involved in cases where delays contributed to a patient’s death.”

Will Hancock, chief executive of SCAS NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have already taken swift action but I recognise we have more to do.”