Figures published today reveal that ambulance response times have fallen to their lowest rate since January 2011 - below 60%.
The proportion of ambulances responding to category A calls within 8 minutes is now 9% below the figure for the same month last year.
Commenting on the figures, Darren Millar AM, Shadow Minister for Health, said:
"These figures paint a worrying picture of many ambulances failing to respond quickly enough to life-threatening calls.
"Despite the best efforts of dedicated ambulance staff, the service is not delivering the standards of service that patients expect and deserve.
"Labour’s Health Minister must get a grip on the situation and alleviate the strain that her government’s record-breaking NHS cuts are imposing on the ambulance service.
"The current review into the performance of the ambulance service must draw its conclusions swiftly and the Minister must urgently act on the review’s recommendations to prevent any further decline in response times."
Commenting on the Minister’s plans to increase the target of category A calls responded to within 8 minutes from 65% to 70%, Mr Millar added:
"Whilst a 70% target is still below that in other parts of the UK, the Minister’s commitment to increasing the percentage of calls arriving within 8 minutes is very welcome.
"That said, it’s beginning to look more and more like a pipe dream given the sliding ambulance performance published today."
Notes:
The figures published today for October 2012 are available online:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/health2012/121128/?lang=en
Figures for October 2011 are also available online:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/health2011/111207/?lang=en