Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, has called for continued improvement in ambulance response times after it has been revealed that the 8 minute target was met for the first time since May.
The target for 65% of urgent emergency calls to receive a response within 8 minutes. In October, this target was met with 65.2% of calls being responded to within 8 minutes. The target in both England and Scotland is for 75% of urgent emergency calls to receive a response within 8 minutes.
Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said:
“It is good to see this target finally being met. While the Welsh Labour Government’s unambitious target is 10% less than in England and Scotland, it is still welcome to see the figures moving in the right direction.
“It is essential that this positive trend continues so that we can finally start reaching the same kind of ambulance response times that patients can expect in England and Scotland. For too long, the people of Wales have had to put up with the worst ambulance response times on mainland UK.
“There is of course still a lot of improvement needed. I am particularly worried about how some areas are receiving a far inferior service when compared to others. For example, only 57% of urgent ambulance call outs in Powys arrived within the 8 minute target. That is hugely disappointing and must be improved”.
