A 93-YEAR-OLD woman was left waiting for an ambulance for almost two hours after falling and breaking her hip.

Brenda Bracy fell into a wardrobe at her home, where she lives alone in sheltered housing in Hove, fracturing several bones including her hip and collar bone.

She was able to use the alarm she wears around her neck at all times to call for help, but was left waiting an hour and 50 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

Her great nephew Aaron Caddis, who lives nearby, was alerted by the alarm company that an ambulance had been called for her.

He found her lying in agony in the dark and medical help only arrived once he had called 999 again to ask for assistance.

He said: “I rushed down there.

“She was in complete darkness and terrible pain.

“I was waiting with her two hours before the ambulance turned up.

“Even once they arrived they spent ages debating which hospital to take her to, Worthing or Haywards Heath because Brighton was on divert.

They ended up taking her to Hastings at about 2am. She is not in a very good state.

She broke her hip and clavicle and suffered internal bleeding. She’s had to have an operation for the hip fracture.

“If I hadn’t been there I dread to think how long she would have been left lying there.

“She is very independent. There is a manager at the sheltered housing but not 24 hours a day. She wears an alarm around her neck. I was shocked it took so long.”

The ambulance call was initially triaged as a category three call by the ambulance service.

The national performance target for these calls is to respond to 90 per cent within two hours.

On receiving further information the call was upgraded to speed up the response, the ambulance arriving in one hour and 50 minutes after the original call.

A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We take all concerns raised seriously and we are sorry Mr Caddis is unhappy with the service his mother received.

“We, of course, wish her well in her recovery.

“All our calls are categorised based on information provided and we respond immediately to life-threatening calls.

“At times of increased demand, calls not triaged as life-threatening may take longer.

“We appreciate that Mr Caddis’s mother will have been in considerable discomfort and we are sorry we could not attend her sooner.”