999 CALL TIMES IMPROVE; But A&E bottlenecks still cause concern.

Byline: Madeleine Brindley Health Editor

PATIENTS were yesterday given fresh hope that ambulances will respond quickly to their 999 emergencies.

The latest response time figures show more ambulances in South East Wales are reaching critically ill patients within eight minutes.

But despite an improvement on December's appalling response times, the figures reveal the under- fire Welsh Ambulance Service still has along way to go before it achieves the 65% all-Wales target.

And the service last night said it was still having problems off-loading patients at A&E departments.

It has called on hospital bosses to help "streamline" admissions to emergency units across Wales.

The performance figures for January, published yesterday, reveal that 53.3% of ambulances reached the most seriously ill and injured patients within eight minutes.

This compares to the all-Wales level of 57.8%.

But this is an improvement on the shockingly low figure of 37.6% of category A calls reached within eight minutes in December - the lowest level for three years.

Ambulance chiefs blamed a combination of an increase in 999 calls, higher than normal levels of flu and long delays at A&E departments for the December figures.

The latest statistics for January within the busy South East Wales region show there remain considerable variations in response times depending on where people live - 65.7% of ambulances responded to category A calls within eight minutes in Merthyr Tydfil, as opposed to just 49.5% in the Vale of Glamorgan.

It is thought this variation reflects the problems in off-loading patients at hospital.

The majority of patients in the Vale of Glamorgan are taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff - a notorious A&E bottleneck - whereas patients in Merthyr Tydfil will be taken to Prince Charles Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said: "After a difficult start to the month, which included adverse weather conditions, performance improved significantly in the second half of January, but we are continuing to work with colleagues across the NHS to ensure that response times continue to improve.

"The trust is committed to ensuring that response times are reaching or exceeding the target across Wales.

"We are working to manage sickness levels and are fill in gv a cant posts to ensure that maximum resources are available at all times.

"There are, however, areas of work which impact on our performance which we need the support of hospital colleagues to address.

"We are fully engaged with hospital trusts to streamline admissions to A&E departments and to manage demand in different ways by developing alternative care pathways to meet patients' needs."