AN ambulance service previously dubbed the worst in the country has improved its performance in reaching the most seriously ill and injured patients.
Department of Health statistics from November showed that East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) was above the national target of reaching 75 per cent of such casualties within eight minutes.
EMAS has gone from joint worst in the country last month to joint fifth of 12 ambulance services after responding to 76.5 per cent of category A calls within the Government’s time specification.
West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) recorded a figure of 76 per cent.
The figures also showed that EMAS had failed to improve its efforts to reach lifethreatening emergencies within 19 minutes.
It had reached 92.4 per cent of calls, which was below the Government-set figure of 95 per cent and the lowest of all the 12 ambulance trusts.
However,WMAS was labelled one of the top four in the country as it attended 98.1 per cent of calls within the time frame.
EMAS operations director Pete Ripley said: “I ampleased to report that we have hit the category eight minutes standard for the last six weeks.
“The figures show that our year-to-date performance for category eight minutes life-threatening conditions is above the national standard, and that we have been above the standard for four out of seven months this performing year.
“All ambulance services are paid by primary care trusts to meet the performance standards on an annual basis, ie it is not a weekly or monthly target to account for the extra demands that flu outbreaks, poor weather and other external factors place on the service.
“As such, our ability to hit the category A target will go up and down by a small percentage throughout the year.”
