Callout target missed.

Byline: By Louise Redvers

North East paramedics need to respond to urgent call-outs from doctors quicker, say latest official figures.

The North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) managed 85.4% of urgent GP call-outs in the required 15 minutes, missing their target by nearly 10%.

However, the service did meet Government targets for life-threatening calls, making more than 75% in under eight minutes. And they managed the serious incident target, getting to 95% of calls like broken legs and minor road accidents within 19 minutes.

NEAS director of accident and emergency, Paul Liversidge, said: "We are very pleased to have met the target for life-threatening and serious call-outs and that is testament to the hard work of paramedics.

"We have also introduced 10 rapid response cars and six motorbikes, along with new technology, and this has meant we can respond to category A call-outs quicker.

"But we know work needs to be done to improve our response time in the urgent category and that it what we will be focussing."

The NEAS covers 2,367 sq miles, serving three million in Tyne Wear, Northumberland and County Durham. Last year it made more than 1.2 million journeys ( 145,500 emergencies, 57,500 urgent and 100,000 special or planned. They received 214,200 emergency calls, an 8.3% rise.