INJURED people have been taken to hospital in the back of police cars because officers have given up waiting for ambulances.
In some cases delays were so bad that officers were left with injured people at the scene of calls "for hours", it is claimed.
The claims have been made by Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping and the Notts Police Federation.
Mr Tipping and senior officers have already held talks with East Midlands Ambulance Service over the problem.
Mr Tipping said: "If there's a death in the back of a police car the repercussion is it will go to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, so officers are quite anxious.
"They are sometimes giving some really basic first aid at the scene of incidents – and they don't think they should be.
"It's not just a Notts problem, it's an East Midlands problem. All of the police forces in the East Midlands have complained about it. Everyone accepts the ambulance service are in real trouble."
Earlier in the year it was announced that the East Midlands Ambulance Service was to be fined £3.5 million by the Government after missing national targets for reaching patients involved in life-threatening emergencies for the third successive year.
Phil Matthews, chairman of Notts Police Federation, said: "Officers have a certain level of first aid, but they could be left with a difficult decision if an ambulance has not arrived.
"Do you leave this person on the side of the road waiting around for an ambulance, or do you put them in your police car and take them yourself?
"We are aware it's a real concern for officers."
Mr Tipping said officers had been left waiting in incidents where elderly people had fallen and been injured, and after people were hurt in assaults.
No exact figures were available but the federation said it was aware of "a number of cases" where officers had been left waiting long periods and some where they had taken patients to hospitals themselves.
The East Midlands Ambulance Service grades 999 calls on severity, "red one" and "red two" being the most life-threatening – these have to be attended within eight minutes.
Lower "green" categories mean an ambulance may arrive up to an hour later depending on demand. This means in many cases police could be left waiting fro a long time at incidents.
The most recent figures available show that, in April, the east Midlands Ambulance fell short of hitting its target for attending Red 1 calls within eight minutes. The service attended 71.2 per cent of these calls within the time frame – the lowest score of any other service in the country. The target is 75 per cent.
But for Red 2 calls, the service hit its target, attending 75.4 per cent of them within eight minutes.
An East Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We always respond as promptly as we possibly can to any call but we do have to prioritise on the medical condition of the patient – and life-threatening calls will always take priority.
"Paramedics and the police are working together on making sure each service can respond more quickly to each other's needs.
"It means we now have agreements on how speedily police should attend sudden deaths or assaults on ambulance crews and when paramedics need to attend police-led incidents.
"This also includes piloting a scheme where police officers can now telephone clinicians for advice on the best care for patients with minor injuries.
"For example, a patient with a broken finger does not need an emergency ambulance and the police officer on scene can direct the patient to the nearest walk-in centre."
