A TEENAGER was left crippled on the pavement for almost two hours in the early hours of the coldest night of the year after shattering his leg in a bike crash.

The 16-year-old was unable to get up after crashing a moped in Ospringe Street, Kentish Town, around 1am on Monday – one of the quietest nights of the year – and as temperatures sank to minus 3 degrees across north London. 

Eventually around 2.50am police put him in a van and took him to the Whittington Hospital where he was given morphine for a broken knee-cap and femur [thigh bone].

Archie Bland, a journalist who lives in Kentish Town, rang 999 but was told it would be at least five hours until an ambulance arrived as they were going to “enhanced purple status” emergency jobs only.

Ambulance call-outs are coded by colour with “purple” being the most serious – for example, the 7/7 terrorist attacks was coded purple. 

Mr Bland said: “I went outside around 1.10am and saw the moped. Around 40 minutes later the police arrived and they seemed pretty surprised it had taken so long for them to be called [by the ambulance service]. 

“They were waiting for permission from the hospital to give him pain relief gas. But they couldn’t get permission. 

“The guy was on the floor in pain. His teeth were chattering, and he was moaning. With some other neighbours, we took him blankets and the police put some silver blankets on him.

“The police seemed pretty astonished. It wasn’t even a Friday and Saturday night, but one of the quietest nights of this time of year. One of the officers on the scene said that basically there was nothing else going on.” 

Recent statistics published by the London Ambulance Service reveal a clear trend showing response times are significantly down in every borough of London.

In Camden in 2012, 75 per cent of the emergency call-outs were reached within eight minutes by an ambulance. 

In the same year, 83 per cent of “Cat C2” call-outs – non-life-threatening emergencies – came within 30 minutes.

Two months ago, ambulance delays saw a former Parliament Hill teacher, who was terminally ill with cancer, left on the floor unable to get up for two hours because of ambulance delays. 

David Collins, who is disabled, made repeated calls to get help for his wife Sue – both were history teachers for more than 20 years at a secondary school – but was told the service was only attending emergencies. 

Police and firefighters have in recent weeks criticised the cutbacks warning they are often picking up the slack. 

NHS sources have told the New Journal how cuts to the number of paramedics is also to blame for ambulance delays. A target culture means ambulances are constantly attending unnecessary call-outs. 

Plans to cut 890 jobs from 5,000 jobs in a bid to save £53million was announced in 2011.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman apologised for delays, adding: “We are very sorry we couldn’t be there sooner and for any distress or discomfort this may have caused but we have to prioritise patients in a serious or life-threatening condition.”