Minister must take action on worsening ambulance response times

12.00.00am GMT Wed 3rd Mar 2010

Commenting on the release of new statistics that show that only 58.5% of emergency ambulance calls were responded to within the eight minute target, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Minister Peter Black said:

"It is disappointing to see yet another fall in performance on the part of the ambulance trust. Patients are continuing to be let down by the failure to respond to emergency calls within the target times and lives are being put at risk.

"I asked the Minister for Health during Ministerial Questions today to tackle this problem urgently. She is in receipt of a review of the ambulance trust that recommends targeted additional investment to help it meet its targets but is refusing to put that money in to the pot.

"She also acknowledges the impact on response times of bottlenecks at accident and emergency departments and the shortage of acute beds, however these problems have been evident for some time and no progress appears to have been made in resolving them.

"The minister needs to knock heads together to get this sorted and quickly."