East: Ambulance Staff Challenge Response Times

6 March 2013, 17:38 | Updated: 6 March 2013, 17:59

Ambulance crews from the east of england have been in London telling MPs how they have problems meeting response time targets.

More pressure's been put on the service by MPs from Norfolk and Suffolk - and the service now has to provide updates about changes its making to improve things.

They want changes made to the A19 target - which is described as ‘The total number of Category A calls, which resulted in a fully equipped ambulance vehicle, able to transport the patient in a clinically safe manner, arriving at the scene of the incident, within 19 minutes, irrespective of location in 95% of cases.'

This paramedic, who didnt want to be identified says resources aren't being made available...

Ambulance Staff Challenge Response Time Targets

A spokesperson for the East Of England Ambulance Service told Heart: "Targets such as A19 are set nationally across all the ambulance trusts."

 “We acknowledge that morale among a number of staff is low but our Interim Chief Executive Andrew Morgan, who has only been in office 10 weeks is listening to our staff and is moving swiftly to take action by devolving powers to a local level, making rotas more effective and providing more support to improve our staff sickness levels.”

“We are also improving performance by recruiting more staff, putting extra ambulances on the road and tackling hospital handover delays.”