OXFORDSHIRE’S ambulance service has apologised for leaving an elderly woman waiting for an hour in the rain for paramedics to arrive.

The woman, estimated to be in her 60s, fell in front of the Phoenix Picturehouse in Walton Street, Jericho, Oxford, at 5.30pm on Tuesday.

Witnesses rushed to help and someone called 999 but no one wanted to risk moving her without knowing what was wrong.

One person ended up holding an umbrella over the woman to keep her dry for nearly 60 minutes.

Elizabeth Lettman was shocked by what she saw as she passed the cinema.

The Jericho resident said: “This was an elderly woman, it was raining – it has to be made known that this sort of thing happens.

“I’m near 70 myself and I think what if I collapsed?

“Would I be left lying in the street for an hour? It’s unbelievable that something like this can happen in broad daylight in the middle of a city centre.”

Another eye witness who works in the area said: “Everyone was shocked by the waiting time.

“We didn’t know how serious this was. Meanwhile, she was lying in the cold on the pavement.”

He said a doctor from Jericho Health Centre came out to make sure the woman was as comfortable as possible, but could not do anything else to help.

The man added: “I think everyone was surprised. We have had to call ambulances before and they are usually there within five or 10 minutes.”

South Central Ambulance Service admitted in October it was battling a massive recruitment crisis which was hitting response times.

In June, July and August paramedics failed to reach patients with life-threatening conditions within eight minutes – their own target – in more than a quarter of cases.

The service said it was trying to fill 450 vacancies, including 300 paramedics.

Last night the service apologised for the delay on Tuesday and said it had been dealing with more urgent calls at the time.

Spokesman David Gallagher said: “We were called to the incident at 5.37pm and based on the patient’s symptoms and condition as described by the caller, the call was triaged as requiring a ‘green 2’ response, meaning an ambulance would be sent within 30 minutes, at 5.39pm.

“Unfortunately, due to the patient’s call coinciding with a particularly busy period and high demand for ambulances in the area to attend patients with more urgent, life-threatening illnesses and injuries, an ambulance was only able to arrive on scene at 6.35pm.

“The patient was then transported in the ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“SCAS would like to apologise to the patient for the delay in reaching her. While the trust always endeavours to meet the recommended response times for green category calls, it has to prioritise its resources to attend red category calls first as these involve patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest, stroke, severe injury or other life-threatening emergency.”