Emergency Patients are having to be held in the Ambulances they arrive in, Fourteen ambulances were parked outside the A&E admissions today at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. Many with patients visible. The hospital has been in great difficulty with bed availability due to the breakdown in social care available to allow safe discharge back into the community. The hospital along with the care system in the County is very under staffed and putting the whole healthcare system in a perilous condition. The hospital states they have approx 140 patients who ideally would be able to recuperate away from the hospital, this figure has been as high as 190. Local MP's have raised the situation in parliament. Some patients have claimed admission waits of up to 13 hours. The bed blocking which causes the long waits at the hospital has seriously disrupted ambulance response times.