AN ELDERLY woman was left lying on the ground after a fall for over an hour while she waited for an ambulance, The Northern Echo has learned.

The unnamed pensioner, a resident at the Reuben Manor Care Home in Eaglescliffe, near Stockton-on-Tees, fell on to concrete outside the home just before 4pm on Tuesday, September 2.

The Northern Echo understands that staff immediately called an ambulance but it did not arrive until 5.03pm.

A spokeswoman for Silk Healthcare, which owns the home, confirmed what had happened said "concerns had been raised" with the North East Ambulance Service.

She said the lady was not badly injured and was out of the hospital the same day.

A North East Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We can confirm that a non-life threatening call was received last Tuesday at 15:54 from Reuben Manor Care Home about an incident involving an elderly lady who had fallen in the garden vicinity of the home’s grounds.

"We sent two separate vehicles to the incident, but both ambulances were diverted en route to more serious life threatening calls. We reached the patient at 17.03 and took her to North Tees Hospital.

“There are no records of any official complaints being made to the Trust about the job in question.”

Louise Baldock, who is standing for election as the Labour candidate in Stockton South next year, said: "Last week we heard about an Arriva bus taking people to hospital after a crash because no ambulance or passenger transport was available.

"Now only days later comes this awful news of a vulnerable elderly person who had fallen down having to lie on the ground for over an hour waiting for an ambulance.

“Far from being safe in their hands, the Coalition Government cuts are decimating our once proud NHS. Even the paramedics themselves are worrying about the quality of the service they can provide when they are under such immense pressure. ”

North East Ambulance staff said earlier this year that Government-ordered budget cuts of up to 20 per cent meant patients were sometimes waiting more than two hours for a vehicle, while rapid response staff were waiting five hours in a patient's home with the patient, waiting for transport.