Improved Ambulance Response Times Welcomed….But with a Caution | "Wales still facing a difficult winter"

12.00.00am GMT Tue 10th Nov 2009

Michael German talks with local paramedics with Ed Townsend, Deputy Leader of Newport City Council

The latest monthly statistics on ambulance response times for South East Wales has led a senior member of the National Assembly for Wales to give a cautious welcome to the 'first signs' of an improvement in ambulance response times.

Michael German AM was speaking as figures released by the Welsh Assembly Government showed that in South East Wales, covering Gwent, the percentage of emergency response's arriving at the scene within 8 minutes had improved to 65 per cent, beating set targets.

The target for Wales is 65% per cent; in South East Wales the performance was 60 per cent.

However, when looking at the performance by local authority, several areas had a poor performance: in Gwent, Monmouthshire continued to experience the worst response times, where just half of emergency calls were responded to within the 8 minute target.

Mr. German said that special attention had to be paid to Monmouthshire's plight as the often quoted 'it's a rural area' excuse held "no water". He said, "Other rural areas in Wales are amongst to top performing counties in Wales for ambulance response times. Denbighshire in North Wales, similar to Monmouthshire, has consistently exceeded all targets with average response times at 80 per cent. Monmouthshire has been at the bottom of the pile and not just experiences the worst response times in Wales, but also one of the worst in the UK as a whole."

However Mr. German praised the rapid increase in the performance figures for Torfaen, which has seen an improvement over the last thirteen months: the latest figures show 69 per cent of emergency calls being attended to on time.

Lib Dem Mr. German said that the persistent poor performance in Monmouthshire was becoming 'completely unacceptable' and that residents' patience could well soon be at 'breaking point'.

"I am continually getting complaints and stories from constituents about ambulances arriving very late and some hours after a 999 call. Special attention has to be paid to why Monmouthshire lags behind the rapid improvements seen in Torfaen of late. There's something to be learned here", he said.

Mr. German was keen to praise paramedics and front-line staff: "They are doing an incredible job in public service: they save lives. They are doing what they can. However, the Welsh Government has got to get a handle on the situation very quickly. It takes time to recruit and train new people."

Speaking about known trends through the year Mr. German added: "We are still facing the flu season during the winter months where trends usually start to worsen. I want to Minister to do everything she can to ensure we do not see ambulances parked up outside local hospital like the Royal Gwent in Newport with no spare ambulances to attend to emergencies."

"There are several 'pinch points' causing the problem here: we know ambulances sometimes get held-up at the Royal Gwent for several hours at Accident & Emergency; we know that the Ambulance Trust has a shortfall of frontline staff. Now they are recruiting and training new people, but still, we will not have a full complement of frontline ambulance people to face the challenge of the winter months."