Ambulance crews cut response time

More than a minutes has been cut off average response times

Ambulance crews are reaching seriously ill patients in an average time of seven minutes and 42 seconds, new performance figures reveal.

East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust claims this was achieved in January when calls were up 9% compared to last year.

More than 80% of responses to life threatening emergencies were within the Government target of eight minutes.

In January, crews answered a total of 15,434 emergency 999 calls in Cambs, Norfolk and Suffolk.

It was also revealed that 97.7% of responses to other emergencies were within the target period of 19 minutes.

Early treatment of heart attacks

Director Rob Lawrence said: "Last January our average response time to life threatening cases was 9 minutes and 3 seconds, and to reduce this to just seven minutes and 42 seconds really does make a massive difference.

"In an area as rural as East Anglia it was often thought impossible to reach more than 80% of life-threatening calls within eight minutes.

"Thanks to super-human efforts we've done it - and in the middle of winter with all its inherent weather problems."

One of the benefits of reaching patients faster is early treatment of heart attack patients with a clot-busting drug.

In January, more than eight in every 10 heart attack treatments carried out in East Anglia was administered by a paramedic in the field.

Mr Lawrence said it was vital that this drug was given within 60 minutes of the onset of symptoms - referred to as the "golden hour".

"This, along with the vitally important early defibrillation of cardiac arrest sufferers, shows the close relationship between response times and patient care," he said.