AMBULANCE RESPONSE TIME FOR SOUTH WALES EAST A MATTER OF GREAT CONCERN  

02.03.11 

William Graham (Shadow Minister for Regeneration and AM for South Wales East) responding to the latest statistics for ambulance response times. 

“The low response times for ambulances throughout the Aneuin Bevan Health Board area during January are a cause for concern”. 

“I acknowledge that this was an extended period of severe cold weather, which resulted in increased emergency calls and adverse road conditions; however there appears to be a renewed trend of declining response times – reversing recent improvement ”. 

“Once again at 40% or just 4 out of 10 ambulances within the Assembly Government target; Torfaen has by far the worst response times in Wales. The concern is that the figures for the whole of the Aneurin Bevan area have dropped to the point that nearly 50% of emergency calls fail to respond within the 8 minutes”. 

“The Minister must give a guaranteed assurance that now we are over the wintery weather there will be a sustained improvement to our ambulance service”. 

In January the percentage of emergency responses within 8 minutes was Torfaen 40%, Monmouthshire 51%, Caerphilly 52%, Newport 54% and Blaenau Gwent 57%.