A teenage motorcyclist knocked off his bike lay injured on the ground for more than two hours while waiting for an ambulance.

He was only treated after his desperate father finally scooped him off the pavement and drove him to hospital.

Dad Rob Butler, 36, said: “It’s disgusting my son had to wait so long. He was on the pavement screaming in pain and shivering in the cold.

“I don’t know what would have happened if people hadn’t come out of their homes and shops to give him a pillow and duvet.”

The crash happened outside the Queen Phillippa, Queenborough at 5.15pm last Wednesday.

Rob’s son Owen, 19, was hit by a BMW at the junction of the High Street.

Bystanders called 999 but operators insisted all Kent crews were so overstretched they could only send ambulances for life-threatening injuries.

After waiting until 7.15pm, Mr Butler gave up and took his son to hospital.

He said: “He said he couldn’t stay there any longer as he was so cold. I was really worried in case he had damaged his legs or spine but he managed to sit up so I picked him up and carried him to my car.

“At Medway A&E he had more than 15 X-rays.

“I am glad to say he only had severe bruising but he was very lucky. His helmet was split by the force of the impact.”

Mr Butler, who lives near Key Street, Sittingbourne, added: “There was a police officer who was brilliant and tried to help.

“People came out with blankets. My son joked later he was embarrassed to find himself wrapped up in a Toy Story duvet with a One Direction pillow.”

"We are sorry for any delays anyone experiences but we have a duty to prioritise patients in a potentially life-threatening condition" - SECAmb spokesman

Owen, a former pupil at Westlands School, had been on his way to visit his girlfriend in Sheerness on his 125 Honda bike after visiting his Nan in Rushenden.

Mr Butler was on his way home from work in Queenborough when he was called.

He said: “We even tried to get an out-of-hours doctor to call but no one would come.”

A spokesman for South East Coast Ambulance Trust said: “SECAmb is, along with the NHS as a whole, very busy across its region.

“This has meant it is taking longer than we would like to reach the scene of some calls, in particular calls which are not immediately life-threatening.

“We are sorry for any delays anyone experiences but we have a duty to prioritise patients in a potentially life-threatening condition.”

There were also reports of delays in ambulance crews attending a motorist who crashed into a ship’s figurehead in Marine Parade, Sheerness, last week and a player who was injured on Sheppey United’s football pitch last weekend.

According to figures from NHS England, only 59.9% of SECAmb crews reached patients within the eight-minute target required for life-threatening emergency calls.

The GMB union has blamed staff shortages for the failings and said the government must act fast to prevent the situation getting worse.

The NHS is suffering one of its busiest times of the year with a record number of patients attending A&E.

There is also an acute shortage of hospital beds as doctors try to get patients back into their own homes but a shortage of community nurses means there are long delays to create care packages.