AN 80-YEAR-OLD woman who had to wait an hour for an ambulance after she fell in the rain has said it was “not the ambulance service’s fault”.

The Oxford resident, who has asked not to be named, suffered a stroke and collapsed in front of the Phoenix Picturehouse in Walton Street on Tuesday last week.

The woman’s family said she ended up with mild hypothermia but is now being treated at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

The woman’s daughter, who asked to be called Amanda and also lives in the city, said: “She is doing fine now as she is in the best hospital in the world and is a strong person.

“I fully understand why the ambulance service felt it was not urgent as it took till the next day to learn what was wrong.

“We, her family, would like to thank the teams at the JR for being so amazing.

“Due to the wait she was a bit hypothermic when she got there, so it was not good, but not really the ambulance service’s fault.”

She said her mother felt the same way.

Elizabeth Lettman, a passer-by, said last week she was shocked by what she saw. She said: “It was an elderly woman. It was raining. It has to be made known that this sort of thing happens.”

South Central Ambulance Service apologised for the delay last week and said it had been dealing with more urgent calls at the time.

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

It said it needed to recruit 300 more paramedics.