WALES’ ambulance service met its performance target for emergency calls in January, despite it proving a challenging month for the NHS.

In Wales three-quarters (75.4 per cent) of on-scene responses to calls deemed ‘red’ - immediately life threatening - arrived inside eight minutes. The target is 65 per cent.

In Gwent the rate was 72.4 per cent, which was the lowest in the area since last March, but better than that for January 2016 (70.2 per cent).

Across Wales there were more red calls last month (1,980) than in January 2016 (1,868), but the ambulance service appears to have coped better, though this may be in large part due to increased familiarity with what last winter was a relatively new calls response system.

There were almost 2,000 more calls in Wales designated as ‘amber’ - serious, but not immediately life-threatening - this January (26,456) compared to 2016.

This increase was mirrored in Gwent, where the 4,980 amber calls last month represented an increase of almost 400 on January 2016.

By contrast, ‘green’ calls - non-urgent and not subject to a time limit - were down in Wales as a whole, and in each health board area.

In Gwent, there were 2,103 green calls, against 2,343 in January last year.

There are also now a broad range of quality indicators published for the ambulance service, including several that detail the care provided for patients prior to them arriving at a hospital.

The latter are all-Wales only figures. Examples include:

l The proportion of patients breathing again on arrival at hospital, after resuscitation following cardiac arrest (12.9 per cent over the October-December period last year);

l The proportion of suspected stroke patients recorded as receiving the appropriate package of care (96.1 per cent during the same quarter);

l The proportion of patients with a suspected hip fracture who were recorded as receiving the appropriate package of care, including pain relief (68.8 per cent, during the same quarter).