Marlow ambulance responses third worse than Wycombe

7:00am Sunday 21st February 2010

By James Nadal

PATIENTS with life threatening conditions in Marlow are about a third less likely to get an ambulance in eight minutes than those in High Wycombe, figures show.

The statistics, revealed by The Free Press this week, reveal 90 per cent of life threatening calls in High Wycombe are reached within this period – the standard target set by health bosses.

The figures show the massive variances in life-saving ambulance response times around Buckinghamshire.

Just 36 per cent of life threatening calls are reached in eight minutes in Princes Risborough.

This makes it the worst in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire – while Chalfont gets 41 per cent and Beaconsfield 55 per cent.

More urban areas such as High Wycombe and Aylesbury get about 90 per cent, underlining a recent probe’s concerns that the county suffers a ‘two-tier’ service.

The investigation said bosses focus on getting good responses to urban incidents – which are higher in number – to push up its overall target score.

Yet this is at the expense of more remote rural areas, for which there is ‘no incentive’ it argues. They also warned those reached within eight minutes might not get the right help.

Conservative Councillor Mike Appleyard, who helped lead the probe, said ‘the problem is with the Government’ as it sets the target.

He said: “Clearly what is happening is the ambulance service is focussing on the urban areas where it is pretty easy to achieve the target because business is so high.”

The figures – for October to December – show 516 calls in High Wycombe and 132 in Marlow.

Cllr Appleyard said even these figures ‘are not based on a very sound foundation’ as the eight minute clock stops if a volunteer or fire service ‘co-responder’ gets there first.

South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust has said these responses can make a difference to patients.

It said: “The trust locates ambulances based on anticipated need, nearest to where a call is most likely to be, which is usually in more densely populated areas.”

The trust said it is ‘developing action plans to address key issues’ but warned calls had doubled in the last decade and people had to consider whether they need an ambulance.

It said: “Our overall performance has improved by 23 per cent since 2007, 50 per cent in rural areas.”

In a statement to the BFP, the Department of Health said: “All ambulance trusts have a duty to ensure that patients get an appropriately rapid response.”

It said the target and other standards ‘represent the service we expect patients to receive’.