THE Ambulance Service has said it is working hard to meet its response times, after failing to meet its August target.

Vale MP, Alun Cairns, said he was concerned after recently released Welsh Government figures suggested ambulances were arriving within the eight-minute target time, in the Vale, in just over half of cases.

53.5 per cent of emergency call ambulances arrived within the Welsh Government target of eight minutes in August this year.

The target is 65 per cent.

Mr Cairns said: “Once again, these figures show that just over half of ambulances are arriving within a clear target of eight minutes. The chances of survival for a patient requiring emergency treatment is dramatically improved if the right care can be administered quickly, and too many patients are being deprived of a service that we all expect.

“Even with the best efforts of ambulance staff and crews, the response times are still leaving a large group of patients waiting longer than the eight minute target. It is simply not good enough, and there seems to be very little action being taken by the Welsh Government to solve this major community issue in the Vale.”

Director of service delivery at the Welsh Ambulance Service, Mike Collins, said the service took 36,101 calls during August, up by 494 calls from the same period last year but down by 1,971 calls from the previous month.

14,067 calls were assessed and categorised as serious and immediately life-threatening.

He said, since April, the Trust had recruited 79 extra staff across Wales, including 21 paramedics, and 46 staff into its Urgent Care Service.

A further 21 paramedics will be appointed in the coming weeks and are expected to be operational by February, and 48 emergency medical technicians will also be officially appointed.

A brand new initiative, launched in August, allows low acuity patients to access alternative transport to hospital, rather than travel by emergency ambulance.

Mr Collins added: “Resolving handover delays remains our top priority and we are working with all Local Health Boards in Wales to minimise these where possible. Over the summer months we have increased our use of HALOs (hospital ambulance liaison officers), clinicians and non-clinicians employed by the Trust to ensure individual handover delays are escalated to senior managers at all affected hospitals and that plans are in place to ensure delays are minimised.

“The emergency healthcare system across Wales is under significant pressure and demand for our service remains very high. We recognise that on occasion we fall short of the eight-minute target but are working as hard as we possibly can to get to patients as quickly as possible.”