A ‘SERIOUS incident’ investigation has been carried out by the South West Ambulance Service following the death of a 71-year-old woman at her Cam home just hours after she had been visited by paramedics on a 999 call.

Gloucestershire coroner Katy Skerrett was told today that Sheila Eve of The Croft was seen at home by an ambulance crew on December 22 last year after she suffered an attack of breathlessness.

Coroner's officer Phil Squibbs said her sister initially called 111 to ask for help but the 111 operator then made a 999 call to send an ambulance.

"Paramedics attended and left her at home to be seen by the out-of-hours service for a possible chest infection," said Mr Squibbs.

"At 12.45pm that day her sister returned to see her and found her collapsed face down and unresponsive on her living room floor.

"A post mortem was carried out on December 24 by Dr John McCarthy and he gave cause of death as an acute infective exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertensive heart disease."

Mr Squibbs said the death had been recorded as natural without the need for an inquest but in March the South West Ambulance Service carried out a serious incident review and due to the findings an inquest was now deemed necessary.

The coroner said the inquest will be held on Feb 19 2015 but before that there will have to be a pre-inquest review hearing for lawyers to make submissions about what witnesses will be needed and the scope of the inquiry.