AN AMBULANCE took more than an hour and a half to reach a toddler who fell down stairs banging his head.

Distraught mum Leanne Williams, 20, waited 45 minutes for a call back from the ambulance service only to be told an ambulance would take another hour and a half to reach her 14-month-old son Mckenzie after he fell down 14 stairs of the home in Osprey Close, Shoebury.

Ms Williams said: “I didn’t know if he had damaged his spine or neck. I was angry at the way they treated us.

“I was worried that he would get worse or have a fit or go to sleep and never wake up.”

The ambulance service, which is reviewing whether £50 million of cuts are affecting its arrival times, classed the accident as non-life-threatening call, but still failed to reach the tot within its own target of 60 minutes.

By the time the ambulance arrived at 9.17pm – an hour and 37 minutes after Ms Williams called – the mum had already taken Mckenzie to hospital.

Mckenzie suffered a lump the size of a 50p piece and bruising after he got through a safety gate and fell down 14 stairs.

Ms Williams called 999 but was told to wait for a call back. After 20 minutes with no return call the anxious mum phoned again, but was again told to wait.

The ambulance service called 25 minutes later, but advised the panicking mum an ambulance would be another 90 minutes, so Mckenzie’s grandparents drove them to Southend Hospital.

An ambulance service spokesman said: “We do our very best to get to patients within the appropriate timeframe, but sometimes this is a challenge if we’re very busy elsewhere with more serious cases such as cardiac arrests, strokes and unconsciousness.

“The trust is however currently planning resources better to fit in with where and when demand lies in an effort to improve response times.”