MORE emergency ‘red’ category ambulance calls in Gwent received an on-scene response inside eight minutes than ever before during May.

Of the 299 ‘red’ calls that resulted in an on-scene response in the area that month, 247 - or 82.6 per cent - resulted in arrival inside the standard eight minutes.

The percentage was the second highest of Wales’ seven health board areas in a month that saw three such areas record more than 80 per cent of on-scene arrivals inside eight minutes.

The Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board) area performance for the same month last year was 78.1 per cent - comfortably above the target - but this May’s improved effort was achieved against a backdrop of an increase in the need for ‘red’ on-scene responses of almost 11 per cent.

Red calls are those where a patient’s condition is judged as immediately life threatening, such as a cardiac arrest.

The ambulance service target is to provide an on-scene response to such calls inside eight minutes, in a minimum 65 per cent of cases.

Since the new calls response system was introduced in Wales in October 2015, the target has been achieved almost universally, both in individual health board areas, and in Wales as a whole.

The other two calls categories are amber - serious, but not immediately life threatening, and green - non-urgent.

The system is intended to focus ‘red’ responses on the most serious cases, and these made up less than 4.5 per cent of the overall total of calls in May.