Ambulance response targets missed

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) is failing to meet response targets for 999 calls, figures have shown.

Just 68% of emergency calls in Yorkshire were reached within eight minutes between April and October. The national target is 75%.

Crews reached 76.2% of casualties in September but only 72.1% in October.

YAS said a change in the way response times were measured meant targets were harder to meet but improvements were being made.

The Kirklees district, which covers Huddersfield, Batley and Dewsbury, had the worst response times, with just 63.3% of 999 calls being reached within eight minutes in October.

CALLS REACHED IN TARGET TIME Hull 88.5% Barnsley 75.2% East Riding 74.1% Doncaster 74% Sheffield 72.5% Bradford 72.4% North Yorkshire 72.1% Leeds 72% Wakefield 71.5% Rotherham 71% Calderdale 64.5% Kirklees 63.3%

Hull and Barnsley were the only two areas in Yorkshire which met the eight-minute target in October.

Call Connect, a new way of measuring ambulance service response times, came into effect in April.

Response times to 999 calls are now measured from the moment the call is put through to an emergency control room.

YAS Chief Executive Martyn Pritchard said targets were more challenging as a result but "significant improvements in performance have been made".

Using pre-Call Connect measurements, 82.1% of 999 calls were reached by YAS within eight minutes last month compared with 73.7% in October 2007.

Mr Pritchard said YAS had received £8m in additional funding this year and the money was being spent on "additional staff and vehicles and improvements to our 999 communications centres".

YAS said it hoped the achieve the 75% target by the end of this financial year.

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