A man who cares for his 73-year-old mother has described the ambulance service as 'third world' after it was forced to apologise for taking five hours to get a vehicle to a 999 call.

Paul Jordan, of London Road, Brandon, called for an ambulance for his mother, Lorna Green, at 6.40am on Monday after she could not get up off the floor.

Mr Jordan, 51, said he had been told by paramedics in the past not to try to lift his mother, who is morbidly obese and suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

With his mother in some discomfort, Mr Jordan called 999 twice more, only to be told the call was low priority. A rapid response vehicle eventually arrived at 11.39am.

Ms Green was eventually taken to West Suffolk Hospital, where it was discovered she has septicemia.

Mr Jordan said: 'The service is third world. Just because I didn't scream and shout, and didn't know about mum's infection, they put us down as low priority. I know they are under pressure, and I've got no problem with the paramedics, but five hours is ridiculous,' he said

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service Trust said: 'We would like to apologise for the wait and any distress this has caused.

'The call was coded as a non-life-threatening incident, and unfortunately due to the unprecedented demand we were facing, a paramedic didn't arrive until 11.39am.

'During that time, a paramedic in the control room made a number of welfare calls to ensure the patient's condition had not changed.

'A number of resources were dispatched earlier, but these needed to be diverted to patients who were seriously ill or in a life-threatening condition.'