A former firefighter was left stuck outside on the pavement waiting for an ambulance all night - despite the service having some of the quickest response times in the country.

Mr Martin fell over his wall while putting the bins out after coming back to his house in Dartford late at night, due to a sciatica attack which affects the spinal cord.

He said he was moving the wheelie bin when it started to roll down the driveway, dragging him with it.

The 79-year-old said: "I could not get up again. I just felt so helpless as I could not move.

"I was stuck on my knees with my knees up against the wall and because of the sciatica I could not straighten my back or legs so I was stuck there.

"I suppose it must have been half an hour before I managed to get the attention from my neighbour in the window and they came down to me.

"They attempted to get me up but the pain was too much."

His neighbours were able to move him into a more comfortable position with cushions.

Mr Martin who lives in Burnham Crescent had pulled his back a few days previously which he thinks trigged the attack on June 18.

Neighbour Kristina Valentine had just got home from a dinner party when she was called to go back to her friends house to help them move Mr Martin after he got their attention.

When she arrived at around 12.30am the motorbike courier phoned for an ambulance.

She said: "He was on the cold pavement on the floor and two hours had passed. I thought 'why are they not prioritising this man'. He might have had internal bleeding - we did not know.

"This elderly gentleman was just lying on the floor. I did not want to move him and do something wrong and put him at further risk. This man was on the floor crying."

The 29-year-old called 999 seven times until around 4.45am when Mr Martin told her to help him up and get to his house. She then cancelled the ambulance after waiting for five hours.

"I felt so helpless as I could not move..."

He explained: "It did not come. She phoned again and it still did not come. It just went on and on and on.

"We decided to call it quits at around half five. It was the coldest part of the night and I was getting cold and so were they. They struggled and I struggled but they got me to the front door.

"I did not sleep well but I slept a bit. I woke up and was still in pain. I was not pleased with the ambulance service, it is just disconcerting.

"It was just waves of pain coming over. If I kept still I had managed to relieve the pain but I only had to cough and the pain was back again. It is acute pain."

Kristina added: "If I knew how long they were going to be I would have moved him. Nobody saw him fall, I was keeping him awake. I was scared of letting him fall asleep as he might not have woke up.

"If we knew it would have been that long we would have taken him to hospital. We could not do more damage lifting him into a car than leaving him lying on the pavement."

A SECAmb spokesman said: "We are very sorry to anyone who has to wait longer than they should for an ambulance.

"Our control room staff and ambulance crews out on the road are working hard to reach everyone who needs us as quickly as possible while we prioritise our response to our most seriously ill and injured patients.

"We would invite anyone with any concerns to contact us directly so we can look into our response to them in detail."

Mr Martin is not the first Kent resident to have waited for hours for an ambulance. A dad from Medway was waiting for almost 10 hours and a lady in Maidstone nearly 14 hours.

Despite this, Secamb has been improving its response times and in recent data was ahead of the national average in the highest three categories of calls and had one of the shortest response times for Category 2 calls.

A Secamb spokesman added: "All ambulance services continue to face pressure and are not achieving the performance expected. It is clear that there remains a lot to do to improve our response times. We are doing everything we can to reach those who need assistance as quickly as possible, while prioritising our response to our most seriously ill and injured patients.

"We continue to work closely with hospitals across our region to minimise handover delays to ensure we are as best placed as possible to attend patients in the community requiring an ambulance response.

"The public can help us manage demand by only calling 999 in an emergency. We also urge everyone to make use of alternatives to 999 for help and advice including speaking to their GP, a pharmacist, by visiting 111.nhs.uk or calling 111."