THE final set of emergency ambulance figures to use the eight-minute 'on scene' standard as a measure of performance, once again show that targets have not been met, in Gwent and the rest of Wales.

In August, 58.7 per cent of category A emergency calls in Gwent received a response on scene within eight minutes. The target for individual council areas is 60 per cent, and for Wales as a whole, 65 per cent.

Newport had the best emergency response performance (66.3 per cent) in Gwent in August, with Caerphilly, at 52.2 per cent, recording the worst. The latter was also the fourth poorest result of Wales' 22 council areas that month.

In all five Gwent council areas, fewer category A calls received an on scene response inside eight minutes in August, compared to July.

But performance this August was considerably better across Gwent, when compared to August 2014.

In recent months, performance against two category A call types - Red 1 and Red 2 - have also been published. Red 1 calls are the most time critical and cover patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest or have stopped breathing, while Red 2 calls are serious but less immediately time critical and cover all other potentially life-threatening conditions.

Seventy-one per cent of Red 1 calls in Gwent in August received an on scene response inside eight minutes, on a par with the all-Wales rate, though the latter was slightly down on that for the previous two months.

From next month, emergency ambulance performance will be measured against criteria different to an all-encompassing eight-minute on scene response time, a move intended to shift the focus more toward patient outcomes.

The Welsh Conservatives have been quick to point out that the 'old' target has been missed for 22 consecutive months and met just once in the past three years, and the party's shadow minister for health, Darren Millar AM, said "communities will rightly question Labour’s decision to move the goalposts."

“The answer to consistently poor performance doesn’t lie in changing targets. Wales deserves a guarantee of urgent improvement, nothing less," he said.

Welsh Liberal Democrats' leader Kirsty Williams AM said: "It’s hugely frustrating that Wales continues to have the slowest response times in the UK. The people of Wales deserve so much better than this."