Ambulance response time cut again

Ambulance crews in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk are getting to patients quicker than ever despite an increase in people seeking help.

The East Anglian Ambulance Trust says a new report reveals it is achieving its target of reaching more than 75% of the most serious calls in eight minutes.

In the year to March average response time for 999 calls was 8mins 14secs.

Responses took just under nine minutes in the previous year, but now they were dealing with about 180,000 calls.

A spokesman said it was the fourth year running that the service had met the eight-minute target for the most serious patients.

The trust says the figures are all the more remarkable because demand has increased by nearly 100,000 calls in a 10-year period.

At the beginning of 1996 crews were called to 79,000 emergencies but this year it was close to 180,000.