London Ambulance Service (LAS) has apologised to a cyclist who waited more than an hour for paramedics to arrive after being struck by a car in Ruislip.
The man in his 40s was left in the care of police officers after paramedics failed to reach him claiming it was the busiest hour of the day.
Eyewitnesses saw police officers performing first aid on the rider after he was struck by a car in Brackenhill, Ruislip Manor at 6pm on Monday.
They claimed he had to wait for “more than an hour” before paramedics arrived.
The driver told the Standard: “I saw one police car attending giving first aid. The cyclist was in recovery with a hi-vis jacket covering him, the police must have got there quickly. I returned from Harrow and there were now two police cars and the cyclist was still lying in the road. But no ambulance.”
The cyclist remains in a “serious condition in hospital”, police said.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We apologise to patients who may have to wait longer than usual for an ambulance at this busy time and we are doing everything we can to improve our response times.
“The time of the incident on Monday was the busiest hour of the day and we received almost 300 999 calls.”
A Met Police spokesman said “Police were called following a collision involving a car and a cyclist.
“The cyclist, a man in his 40s, was taken to hospital. He remains there in a serious condition.
“There have been no arrests.”
It came as the crisis in emergency care in London was laid bare on Monday by figures showing suspected stroke or heart attack patients faced record waits for an ambulance last month.
Figures published by NHS England reveal that the average response time for a Category Two call in the capital in December was 1 hour 24 minutes — 12 times the NHS target.
The previous record was in July last year when it hit 1 hour 1 minute.
In December 2019, the average response time for a Category Two call in London was just 25 minutes.
A total of 5,196 people with an “emergency” condition, such as a stroke or heart attack, waited more than three hours for an ambulance in the capital during the time period.
