Call for answers on 'deteriorating' Shropshire ambulance response times

Ambulance chiefs have been asked to attend a meeting of Shropshire Council's Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee to explain what can be done to improve response times in the county.

Figures for the past year show that West Midlands Ambulance Service had failed to hit response targets for the most serious life-threatening incidents.

With a target of reaching 75 per cent of the most serious calls in eight minutes, the trust has fallen nearly 10 per cent short, with 65.6 per cent of the 1,256 Shropshire calls being answered in time.

The trust has also fallen five per cent short in the Shropshire response time for the second most serious type of incidents.

Gerald Dakin, chairman of the scrutiny committee, said he appreciated the difficulties faced with providing cover in a rural area, but wants to know what can be done to tackle the issue. He said: "I am hoping we will be able to get answers about what they are doing to hit these times."

The committee will ask the trust's general manager for West Mercia, Michelle Brotherton, its director of clinical commissioning and service development, Mark Docherty, and its deputy chief executive officer, Diane Scott, to "explain the contributing factors underlying the deteriorating trend in response times in Shropshire".

Murray MacGregor, spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "Our staff work incredibly hard to provide the very highest level of service to the people of Shropshire. However, this will always be challenging based on the fact that the funding we receive is considerably short of what is required to hit performance standards."