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Search forMP: Rural ambulance times not fast enough
Friday, May 16, 2008, 07:00
Mr Stuart, a Conservative, has asked Yorkshire Ambulance Service to provide data on response times by individual wards because of his concerns.
The ambulance service must reach at least 75 per cent of patients with life-threatening illness or injury within eight minutes.
Figures show in the 12 months leading up to March, the service failed to meet that target – responding within the time limit only 73.3 per cent of the time across the whole of Yorkshire.
And performance was even worse in the East Riding, where 64.5 per cent of the most seriously ill patients received a response within eight minutes.
Mr Stuart said not only was the target not being met across the service as a whole, but the figures were worse for his constituents.
He said: “These figures are deeply worrying.
“My suspicion is that those people living in Easington, for example, will be receiving a significantly poorer service than those living in Beverley St Mary's.
“If this proves to be the case, I will be demanding an explanation from the Government and seeking immediate improvements.”
He has pledged to find out more about the situation.
He said: “Last month, I met with the chief executive of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust and I've now written to him to get a more detailed breakdown of the figures and to find out what is happening in each individual ward.”
Paul Mudd, assistant director of operations for Hull and East Riding at Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “Our priority is to put patient care at the heart of everything we do and, in the past year, we have made significant long-term investment in additional resources in the Hull and East Riding area. This includes six new rapid response vehicles and 34 extra operational staff.”
“In rural areas we have introduced Community First Responder schemes which are proving successful in responding to life-threatening emergencies within their local rural communities, prior to the arrival of an emergency ambulance.”
An ambulance responding to an emergency
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