Ambulance response flags again

5:18pm Saturday 5th July 2008

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By Andy Rutherford - Health correspondent »

AMBULANCE services' fluctuating performance in Gwent this year continued in May, with big falls in performance across Torfaen and Monmouthshire.

Fewer than half of the immediately life threatening emergency (Category A) calls in Torfaen in May were reached inside the target of eight minutes, compared to a 60 per cent success rate in April - and performance against this target in Monmouthshire was six per cent down.

The Torfaen result was the second worst out of 22 Local Health Board areas in Wales, and Monmouthshire the third worst.

But falls in performance were also recorded in May in Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Newport, though these were all around the two per cent mark.

Performance has risen and fallen in Torfaen and Monmouthshire during 2008 and it appears that each area is particularly susceptible to increases in demand.

In April there were around 24,000 emergency calls Wales-wide, when these two areas recorded much-improved figures, but the figure for May was almost 27,000.

Sixty-five per cent of category A emergency calls should be reached inside eight minutes and this was achieved in just seven LHB areas in May, compared to 10 in April.

Despite millions of pounds in investment in ambulance services in the past 18 months, concerns remain over performance,especially in rural areas.

Only last month, a review carried out on behalf of the Assembly concluded that despite improvements in reaching patients within the target time, performance must get better still, particularly in rural areas, to prevent unacceptably long waits for patients.

The review report contained 16 recommendations, including closer working between ambulance services, NHS trusts and LHBs, to speed up turnaround times at hospitals, to meet the new 15-minute handover target, and an action plan to improve performance across south east Wales.