THE ambulance service has been criticised for taking 40 minutes to get to a man suffering blood loss.

The man was losing blood from cuts to his arms.

A woman rushed over to John Reynolds, who was outside his house in Baronswood Way, Colchester, asking him to call for help.

Mr Reynolds said three police cars arrived before the medics turned up.

He said: “There was blood everywhere, but the call operator wasn’t interested. She kept saying: ‘We have to assess the situation’.

The situation was he was bleeding to death.”

The incident took place on Boxing Day at 4.30am.

Mr Reynolds called the police and officers arrived and requested medical help and a rapid response vehicle was sent.

He said: “I hope I never have an accident, if you have to go through this. I know they are short on ambulances, but this wasn’t a pointless call.”

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust said it was called just before 4.30am and it was decided not to send an ambulance.

A clinician called the 999 caller back 15 minutes later to get more information before the police requested an ambulance.

The spokesman said: “At 5.03am a paramedic arrived and the casualty was taken to Colchester General Hospital.”

He had lost a lot of blood, but was not in a critical condition.

! HEALTH Minister Norman Lamb has called on the East of England Ambulance service to stop ignoring rural areas.

He spoke out after Peter Nelson, 26, collapsed, and died in hospital after waiting two hours for an ambulance in Norfolk. Mr Lamb said some trusts were focussing on urban areas to meet targets.

He said: “You can’t have a system that allows rural areas to lose out while trusts apparently meet Whitehall targets.”

Calls are divided into six categories.

The most serious requires a response within eight minutes for 75 per cent of incidents and within 19 minutes for 95 per cent of incidents.