Higher targets met by ambulance service
AMBULANCE bosses today said crews successfully coped with record numbers of 999 calls caused by the August heatwave.The volume of emergency calls was up more than 14 per cent on last August with crews responding to 13,270 compared with 11,670 for the same period last year.
AMBULANCE bosses today said crews successfully coped with record numbers of 999 calls caused by the August heatwave.
The volume of emergency calls was up more than 14 per cent on last August with crews responding to 13,270 compared with 11,670 for the same period last year.
The very hot weather played a part in the increase, with a large influx of tourists to parts of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Despite this, 76.75pc of patients suffering with a life threatening condition received medical care within eight minutes, compared with 71pc last August. The government national target is 75pc.
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Paul Sutton, director of operations at the East Anglian Ambulance Service, said the crucial eight-minute target had now been reached for 12 successive months.
"There's a danger that people start to take this success for granted, but without the strenuous efforts of all our staff there's no way we would be able to keep pace with the increase in activity," he said.
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"Staff in the NHS often feel browbeaten by criticism from all sides, and I feel strongly that when a group of people put in as much effort as our staff then they should receive the public acclaim they deserve."
Improvements in response time performance to life-threatening (Category A) calls are vital to save the lives of more people who fall victim to cardiac arrests or who are injured in serious road accidents.
www.eastanglianambulance.com
