Health bosses have pledged to improve their out-of-hours service after an Oxfordshire pensioner died waiting more than two hours for a paramedic.

An ambulance was called for terminally-ill Peter Murray, 81, on June 6, who was at the Grange nursing home in Stanford in the Vale, near Wantage, after he developed breathing difficulties.

But help did not arrive until two hours and 15 minutes after the attendance of a paramedic was promised by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust's out-of-hours GP service.

A paramedic arrived five minutes after the pensioner, who was terminally ill with two brain tumours, died.

Mr Murray, 54, who lives in the village with his wife Helen, said: "The PCT has written to me to say they are recommending a review of procedures, and I want that review to be carried out because I don't want other families to endure what we went through."

Following his father's death, Mr Murray complained to the PCT about the way the case was handled and has received an apology.

Mr Murray added: "My father was terminally ill, so I don't know if he would still be alive today if someone had arrived earlier. But he was promised help and it did not arrive for two hours and 15 minutes after the first call."

Mr Murray said staff at the home immediately phoned the PCT's out-of-hours service after his father had difficulties breathing.

His complaint led to a letter from PCT chief executive Andrea Young, who said the case was not correctly flagged as "urgent", which suggests a paramedic should respond within two hours.

She added a GP who handled a second call from the home should have upgraded the case to "urgent".

Josephine Wilkes, a spokesman for Oxfordshire PCT, said: "The PCT is committed to implementing the recommendations that are set out in the letter to Mr Murray, which will continue to improve the out-of-hours service."

Recommendations from Dr Ian MacKenzie, GP advisor and clinical governance head for the PCT, call for the following: 1 A review of coding calls in the out-of-hours service 2 Further training on urgent/emergency classifications to be put in place 3 GP practices be reminded of their responsibility to notify the out-of-hours service of patients that may require palliative care/special needs.

Helen Robinson-Gordon, a spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service, said the out-of-hours service was contacted by the nursing home and the call was passed to a GP "entirely within the guidelines used for non-emergency calls to the out-of-hours service".

She said: "There was no information to suggest that this was anything more than a routine visit.

"Routine visits mean that a GP or paramedic has up to six hours from the time of the request to make the visit. Our paramedic was there well within the guidelines for attendance."