Poor 999 response times raised in Parliament

RESPONSE times of ambulances answering emergency calls in an area of rural East Yorkshire will be raised in Parliament tomorrow after it emerged they have fallen again.
Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and HoldernessGraham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness
Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness

Statistics obtained by Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart show only 41.4 per cent of emergency calls were being met in the Mid-Holderness area within the eight-minute guideline in the first six months of last year.

In June it dropped to just 34.2 per cent.

Mr Stuart said he would be asking tough questions of chairman Della Cannings and chief executive Rod Barnes at a briefing in Westminster for the region’s MPs today.

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Last year’s figures for the HU11 postcode area were down 11 per cent on the previous year.

Meanwhile in South Holderness only 54.6 per cent of calls were answered within eight minutes in the first six months of 2015. Mr Stuart said: “It is unacceptable that response times in some rural areas of my constituency continue to trail so far behind the national target – and that they have got worse not only compared to the equivalent period in 2014 but even compared to 2012, when I started my campaign.

People in Mid-Holderness in particular will rightly worry that they will not receive emergency care when they most desperately need it.”

Mark Inman, Head of Emergency Operations (Hull and East Riding) at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said sparsely populated areas presented challenges for all emergency services.

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They are running a recruitment campaign for extra paramedics and emergency care assistants in the area, in the face of a national shortage.

Overall 65.5 per cent of ambulances in the East Riding arrived at emergency calls within the target time last year. He added: “We continue to urge the public to use our 999 service wisely so we are able to prioritise resources for those with life-threatening illnesses and injuries.”