Wednesday, February 03 2010
Shadow Health Minister Andrew RT Davies AM has criticised the Assembly Government’s failure over ambulance response time targets.
The latest figures reveal that in December 59.4% of ambulances arrived at emergencies within eight minutes - a drop of 6.4% on the previous month and below the 65% target.
Andrew RT Davies AM said: “The repeated failure to hit emergency response times is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.
“While there have been some improvements in the service recently it is not good enough for ministers to blame winter pressures for the latest figures.
“Problems with the ambulance service are part of a wider system failure within the Welsh NHS where hospitals are not working in the most efficient way.
“The wide differences in response times – and the fact that people living in more than half the country cannot expect an ambulance to arrive within the target eight minutes should they need one – mean patients continue to face a postcode lottery when it comes to accessing emergency treatment.”