Everyone expects ambulances to arrive within a few minutes when calls are made about a life-threatening emergency.

But an ambulance called to a rural part of East Sussex by the son of a man who had suffered an internal haemorrhage took nearly 30 minutes to arrive and he bled to death.

The son made a formal complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman who said the delay was simply not acceptable.

There were some problems at the time, as there often are but nothing which should have taken precedence over this emergency.

In far-flung country areas, the response is unlikely to be as swift as in the middle of Brighton and Hove.

But East Sussex is not that remote and no part of it is more than a few miles from an ambulance base.

Sussex Ambulance Trust has rightly reviewed its complaints procedures following the incident and introduced a unit which should ensure quicker response times.

It's possible that even if the ambulance had got there quicker, this man would still have died.

That will be decided should the dead man's family decide to sue the trust for compensation.

Whatever happens over that, at least they will have had the satisfaction that their personal tragedy has led to improvements which may save the lives of others.