A woman suffering a heart attack had to wait an hour for an ambulance to take her to hospital.
Hayley Blanche, 42, was in bed when she felt unwell with pains in her chest and began vomiting.
Suspecting she was having a heart attack, husband Eddy dialled 999.
A first responder paramedic arrived within 15 minutes to their Fochriw home and started to treat Mrs Blanche, but it was another 45 minutes until an ambulance arrived to take her to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.
Mr Blanche said: “We don’t live in a developing country, how can it take an hour to get an ambulance out?
“Living up the Valleys, I know people who have had problems getting ambulances.
“The first responder made at least two calls to control to find out progress on the ambulance.”
Mr Blanche said he told the operator he thought his wife was having a heart attack and was stunned at the time it took to get an ambulance.
Once at Prince Charles Hospital, Mrs Blanche was then transferred to the University Hospital Wales in Cardiff.
Weeks on from her hospital admission on July 3, Mrs Blanche is now home and is recovering well.
Despite their experience, the couple have nothing but praise for the paramedics, ambulance crews and medical staff that treated Mrs Blanche.
Mr Blanche added: “The staff were absolutely first-rate and fantastic. In my opinion, it is the system they have to deal with which is at fault.”
In Wales, there is no longer a universal time target that ambulances have to meet when responding to calls.
The target used to be 65% of all calls had to be responded to within eight minutes.
After 20 months of missed targets, the Welsh Government changed the way performance was measured.
Since October last year, as part of a one-year trial, emergency calls are now graded as red, amber or green.
Red calls are those that are immediately life-threatening and still carry an eight minute response target.
Amber calls are where patients may need treatment at the scene and fast transport to hospital, while green calls are non-serious calls that can often be dealt with via other health services.
Neither amber calls or green calls have a time-based target.
The latest statistics for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area show that in June this year, 75% of red calls were responded to within eight minutes – above the 65% target.
The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust said that a call describing symptoms of chest pains and shortness of breath would be classed as an amber call.
A heart attack where the patient’s heart stops beating would be classed as red.
Darryl Collins, the trust’s Head of Operations for the Aneurin Bevan Health Board area, said: “We are sorry to hear about Mrs Blanche’s experience and hope that she is making a full recovery.
“Although we had a paramedic in a rapid response vehicle at the scene within 13 minutes, we understand that the wait for an ambulance to transport her to hospital may have been a distressing one.
“We would encourage Mr Blanche to make contact with us so that we can have a full discussion with him about how we responded.”