Private and voluntary ambulance services have had to be called in to keep up with the demand on 999 calls.
East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) has been struggling to meet response time targets as calls soar.
On Saturday controllers took 3,032 calls, nearly 400 more calls than on the same day last year.
It is also up on the New Year's Day figure of 2,949 - usually one of the busiest times of the year.
Adding to the delays is pressure on the A&E department at Leicester Royal Infirmary where it is taking longer for ambulances to hand over their patients and get back on the road.
Latest figures show that since April, crews across Leicestershire are reaching 70 per cent of the most urgent calls within eight minutes when the target is to get to 75 per cent within the time.
Irene Helps, had to wait nearly two hours for an ambulance after she slipped and fell outside her daughter's house in Eyres Monsell.
The 73-year-old was left lying in the frosty front garden while her daughter Gail Read and neighbours tried to comfort her and keep her warm.
She is now in hospital with fractured hip and shoulder.
Mrs Read, 55, said: "We couldn't move my mother - all we could do was try and keep her warm.
"I rang for an ambulance at 1.28pm and was told someone would get there as soon as possible but that they were really busy.
"I rang again at 2.07pm to be told the same and again at 2.48pm."
She added: "A little while later, about 3.10pm I rang again because we couldn't stop my mother shaking and I thought she was going into shock.
"An ambulance from Amvale medical transport arrived about 15 minutes later."
Ms Read has now written a letter of complaint to Emas.
Tim Slater, general manager for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: "We are sorry we were unable to provide a quicker response to the lady and will look into the reasons why.
"We were experiencing a significant rise in demand on our service over the weekend, some days we received more calls than we do on an average New Years Eve."
He added: "One of the ways to support that demand is to use voluntary and private ambulance services as additional resources, this allows us to continue to provide the best possible service to the public.
"The same approach is used across the NHS, for example, agency nurses in hospitals and locum GPs.
"Our longer term aim is to reduce reliance on this type of support."
Mr Slater said that the service was recruiting more frontline staff.
However, he added: "It takes three years at university for an individual to be trained to paramedic level.
"The services of Amvale Medical therefore meet our needs and those of the community, almost immediately."
