CHRONICALLY-ill asthmatic Bill Withers receives emergency treatment in the back of an ambulance - one of three patients forced to wait more than an hour for an A&E bed.

This grim picture highlights the depth of the beds' crisis gripping Worcester Royal Infirmary.

Ambulances were backed up for more than an hour yesterday afternoon, waiting to unload the 78-year-old and two suspected stroke victims.

The scene came hours after city consultant Dr Clive Studd accused Worcestershire Health Authority of reducing care to "the level of a Third World country".

A month ago Mr Withers, from Powick - who also suffers from emphysema - spent six hours on a trolley in casualty while Ronkswood bulged at the seams.

A crippling bed shortage is stretching services, and the problem has been made worse by 33 "bed-blockers" taking up emergency and surgical acute beds.

Health authority bosses have urged Worcestershire Social Services to take action and help ease the pressure on bed times.

"It does not help when 33 beds, which should be for emergency patients, are being blocked because action isn't being taken by social services," said Harold Musgrove, chairman of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. "It's an impossible situation that puts impossible strain on our nurses."

Mark Tuomey, Unison's Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Trust branch secretary, said that yesterday's events were not a one-off.

"It's becoming an everyday occurrence," he said. "The acute trust says things will improve when Kidderminster closes on the 18th of September, but it will become worse."

Mr Withers' next door neighbour Pam Hickley, who accompanied him to the hospital, described the situation as "disgusting".

"This isn't the kind of health service that I would expect, or Bill should," she said. "The staff have been brilliant. It's not a criticism of them but the system."