AMBULANCE chiefs have apologised to the family of a 91-year-old man from the district who had to wait nearly two hours for a crew to arrive after falling and breaking his hip.

But there is anger that it has taken more than two months for an apology and explanation to be issued.

Ernest Clewer, of Keighley, lay in agony outside his Hillworth Village home while Good Samaritans who had gone to his aid rang the ambulance service five times.

When a crew eventually did arrive following the incident, on December 22, the retired engineer was taken to Airedale General Hospital, in Steeton, where he underwent hip replacement surgery the following day.

In a letter to the family, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has said sorry for the delay in attending, which it put down to exceptionally high demand.

It said an ambulance was allocated within two minutes of the first 999 call being received, but en route it was diverted to a higher priority case.

"Unfortunately due to the emergency workload we were dealing with we were unable to send an immediate ambulance response for which I can only apologise," said Carrie Whitham, head of service delivery in the YAS emergency operations centre.

"We always aim to respond to 999 calls as soon as possible, but sometimes the number of patients requiring immediate attention in one area is greater than the number of ambulance crews we have available."

She said YAS was working on improving its response times, which had failed to meet targets in the first half of the current financial year.

Measures include a focus on filling paramedic vacancies and the provision of back-up resources should a higher-than-predicted volume of calls be received.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Clewer's wife, Elaine, said she was happy to have eventually received an explanation and apology.

But she added: "It's a pity it's taken so long.

"Ernest's case is not unique, I've heard of other worse situations than this.

"Something needs to be done."

Mr Clewer's rehabilitation is continuing and his condition is improving.

He was admitted to Thompson Court, at Crossflatts, Bingley, after being discharged from hospital.