EMERGENCY ambulance response times were down in all five council areas in Gwent in March, compared with the same month last year.

Direct comparison is difficult as the criteria for emergency calls has changed - but the biggest falls in performance were recorded in Torfaen, Caerphilly and Newport.

In Torfaen in March, 58.9 per cent of category A calls were reached inside the target eight minutes, down from 68.2 per cent in March 2011.

In Caerphilly, 60.6 per cent of such calls were reached within target, against 70.1 per cent last year, and in Newport 69.1 per cent, against 77.3 per cent.

One of the ongoing issues that is affecting response times is rising demand, and this is not confined to Gwent.

Wales-wide in March there were almost 35,500 emergency calls, up from 30,000 the previous March and an increase of more than 18 per cent.

That followed a 10 per cent increase from March 2010. The year-on-year increases in Gwent are not quite as high as those for Wales, but rising demand is an issue that ambulance and health board chiefs are trying to address.

GP input at ambulance control - as a means of providing a method of triage to reduce the number of patients being taken to hospital - is among the solutions being tested.

The siting of an ambulance liaison nurse at A&E at the Royal Gwent, to speed up handovers, is another solution, which has helped keep crews on the roads for longer, rather than being delayed with patients at hospital.

But the biggest challenge lies in persuading people that calling an ambulance is not necessarily the most appropriate way of dealing with an injury or illness.