Be careful what you ask for...

The Labour party in Britain promised that patients would have to wait for no more than four hours to be seen in an emergency room. Guess how the National Health Service is meeting this performance goal:

Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets.

Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge.

The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls.

Ambulances: 'A colossal waste of resources says the union Unison

Doctors warned last night that the practice of "patient-stacking" was putting patients' health at risk.