Residents in Berwick who suffer a serious medical emergency have to wait far longer than average for an ambulance to arrive, according to new data.
The figure of nine minutes and 46 seconds for category one response times is well above both the NHS target of seven minutes and the North East Ambulance Service average of seven minutes and 39 seconds.
According to NEAS, a category one response are for life-threatening illnesses or injuries, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest.
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Coun Georgina Hill, who represents the Berwick East ward on Northumberland County Council, obtained the data via a Freedom of Information request to NEAS. It comes after Coun Hill called for more detail from the ambulance service on response times in its annual report, which was presented at a council meeting earlier this month.
Coun Hill made similar comments when the previous report was presented last year. The FOI request asked for the average response time for ambulances to attend call outs made for incidents in areas which have a TD15 postcode in the last 12 months (9th April 2022 - 9th April 2023).
She said: "It is disappointing that I had to submit an FOI request to get this breakdown. The NEAS should be much more transparent in the data they supply so residents can see how quickly ambulances respond in their particular locality.
"Quite obviously, every second counts in an emergency situation so it is very worrying that the average response time is almost 3 minutes longer here than the national standard target and over 2 minutes longer than the average for the region.
"Of course, while 9 minutes and 46 seconds is the average - some patients will be waiting for an ambulance even longer, which could easily constitute a catastrophic delay.
"The NEAS will probably point out that these figures compare favourably with the national average and the response times are a lot worse in many other parts of the country but that is of scant consolation. I look forward to hearing how they plan to bring down response times.”
However, in terms of less serious incidents Berwick performed better than the regional average. For category 2 (serious but no immediate risk to life) the average response time for Berwick over the last 12 months was 30 minutes, 50 seconds compared to an average within the NEAS area of 45 minutes, 6 seconds.
For category 3 (urgent) for Berwick it was 44 minutes, 58 seconds and the NEAS average was 2 hours, 6 minutes and 1 seconds, while for category 4 (non-urgent) for Berwick it was 1 hour, 31 minutes and 46 seconds and the NEAS average was 1 hour, 57 minutes and 49 seconds.
Responding to Coun Hill's comments, Victoria Court, deputy chief operating officer for North East Ambulance Service, said: “We work hard to reach those patients most in need within the best possible timeframe, but understand the frustration felt when we are not always able to do this.
“Over the last 12 months, we have continued to face unprecedented pressure on our service, leading to some patients waiting longer than we would like. The reasons for this pressure are varied but include more patients presenting with serious illnesses and life-threatened conditions, more people calling the ambulance service because they are having difficulties accessing more appropriate parts of the health service and pressure at our regional hospitals leading to handover delays.
“The nature of some of our rural locations can make it harder for us to meet response time standards due to the distance our resources need to travel. In Berwick, this is compounded by the nearest emergency department being around 60 miles away, resulting in our ambulance crews being taken out of the area for a considerable period if their patient requires emergency hospital treatment.
“To try and mitigate potential delays to patients caused by these challenges, we introduced the Berwick community paramedic scheme in 2019, which has seen our response times improve significantly in the Berwick area.
“We publish our response data at a locality level in line with national guidance. We would be happy to meet with Councillor Hill to discuss her concerns in more detail and explain how we are trying to meet the challenges we face in her area.”
Coun Hill has said she will be holding a surgery for residents on Saturday, April 29 at St John’s Church, Spittal between 2pm and 4pm.
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