A BECKENHAM man is campaigning to reintroduce ambulance response times after he was left bleeding for an hour.

Rod Reed, 52, has written to health secretary Andrew Lansley calling on him to reintroduce the 19 minute target for all non life-threatening emergencies which were scrapped in 2010.

Mr Reed, of Foxgrove Avenue, was left waiting for an ambulance for an hour after he lacerated his hands on glass in a gardening accident while working in Catford.

He said: “I was wearing gloves but there was a tremendous amount of blood.

“As each quarter or an hour passed I was getting more worried and we were told they couldn’t tell us when an ambulance would arrive.

“I had passed out because I lost so much blood. I felt very weak in that situation. After about 40 minutes I was just wondering where is this going.”

London Ambulance Service has since told Mr Reed no ambulance was available because of broken down vehicles, staff shortages because of sickness and a peak in demand.

A spokesman from the London Ambulance Service said: “From the information we received, it was established that the patient was conscious and breathing and not in a life threatening condition.

“In this situation we would expect to send an ambulance within 30 minutes of receiving the call.

“However, because of exceptionally high demand on the Service we were unable to send an ambulance immediately.”