999 response targets are still not being met in Newport area
Ambulance response times for the most serious calls have improved in one area of Shropshire since a new base was brought in – but targets are still not being met.
New figures have revealed that 62 per cent of calls for life-threatening emergencies in the TF10 area – which covers Newport, Lilleshall, Church Aston and Edgmond – have been responded to within the eight minute national target time between December last year and now.
It is an improvement on the 54 per cent response rate for red two calls – emergencies which are life-threatening but where the patients are conscious and breathing – recorded between January 2012 and December 2012.
It comes after a new ambulance hub which acts as a base for vehicles opened in Newport within the grounds of the Cottage Care Centre in Upper Bar in December last year.
But the figure is still well short of the national response rate target of 75 per cent.
Meanwhile, the response rate for red one calls – for life-threatening emergencies where the patient is not conscious and not breathing – is 71 per cent, the same as it was in the 12 months before the new station was created. That is slightly below the national target of 75 per cent.
Chris Kowalik, a spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "Since we moved in to Cottage Care Centre, our performance regarding response times to red calls has improved in the TF10 postcode area which Newport falls under."
The ambulance service invested £11,000 in the new station, which was welcomed by staff at the care centre. It comes despite the service looking to generate £1.13 million savings by selling stations in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Craven Arms and Whitchurch, in addition to £2 million in "staff efficiency" savings across the region.
Elsewhere in the county, there were 20 red one incidents in the Shropshire area last month, with a response rate of 70 per cent.
In Telford & Wrekin, there were 17 red one incidents and the success rate for responding within eight minutes was 94 per cent.
There were 1,245 red two incidents in Shropshire with a response rate of 69 per cent, while there were 827 incidents in Telford & Wrekin and a response rate of 77 per cent.
