by 
The Queen, the Royal Family, and the entire nation have been failed by an underfunded and overstretched NHS.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has sadly passed. But could she have been saved? Simon Williams is a member of the household staff at Balmoral and saw yesterday’s harrowing events unfold.
“It was actually late on Wednesday when the Queen collapsed in Balmoral’s east drawing room,” said Simon. “Princess Anne was already on the premises and was immediately summoned.
“Her Majesty was still conscious and breathing but Anne decided to call an ambulance. The operator asked her a frustrating series of what seemed like irrelevant questions: Are they bleeding? Are they intoxicated? I know they were just doing their job but surely one of the first things to ask in this situation is ‘Are they the Queen?’
“Anyway, eventually the operator said that an ambulance was on the way. I was asked to switch on all the downstairs lights and open the front gates to ensure the driver knew where we were. Naively, I rushed to do this, thinking that an ambulance would be here within minutes, just like you see on TV.
“But three hours later, we were still waiting. Anne phoned 999 again to get an update. They apologised but said that all available ambulances had been diverted to higher priority cases. Was there any way we could get the patient to A&E ourselves?
“Anne had already stabled the horses for the night and we’d all had a brandy to steady our nerves so this wasn’t an option.
“There was nothing to do but wait.
“We all leapt up when the doorbell rang – finally! But it was just Prince Andrew arriving. He’d brought pizza. At this point we thought about taking Her Majesty to hospital in Andrew’s car, but she was beginning to drift in and out of consciousness and we thought it perhaps unwise to try to move her.
“When Charles and Camilla arrived the following day, the Queen was still lying on the floor. An hour later, her breathing became erratic. As there was still no sign of an ambulance, Anne called the BBC and said it was time for all the newsreaders to change into black suits and for Nicholas Witchell to be let off the leash.
“By five o’clock, Charles was King.
“I will always wonder what would have happened if an ambulance had arrived on time. Perhaps her passing was inevitable and she’d just have died a less dignified death on a trolley in A&E, unceremoniously parked next to a vending machine.
“But perhaps she could have been saved. I guess we’ll never know.”
