Worrying ambulance delays across Bucks have been blamed on the long journey paramedics are forced to make from A&E to the south of the county.

The length of time patients have had to wait in A&E before they are seen by a doctor has also suffered over the last year, as the NHS struggled to cope with the winter crisis.

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) failed to hit the seven-minute response target across the Chiltern Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area for life-threatening emergencies in 2017/18.

On average, paramedics arrived at the most serious calls, known as category one, in 8 minutes 29 seconds.

SCAS also missed out on the 18-minute target for ‘emergency’ calls, or category two, in the Chiltern area, on average arriving at the patient within eighteen minutes and 43 seconds.

The concerning statistics echo fears continuously raised by campaigners over the last decade, who have been calling for Wycombe’s A&E to be returned since its closure 12 years ago.

High Wycombe residents are forced to travel 14 miles to their nearest A&E at either Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, or Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury.

SCAS has also blamed the delays on traffic disruption caused by severe winter weather, as well as an increase in the time it takes for paramedics to hand the patient over to the emergency departments.

Head of operations at SCAS, Mark Begley, said: “SCAS continues to work with all its NHS partners to minimise any delays and improve response times for patients in Buckinghamshire.

“More recently this work has been evident in improved response times for some areas.

“For May 2018, the mean response target for category 1 [the most serious cases] in Aylesbury Vale CCG was achieved (6:58) and across Buckinghamshire as a whole (including Milton Keynes), for the financial year to date the mean category 1 response target is also being achieved (6:49).”

MP Steve Baker said he is “concerned” to learn of the delays, however highlighted the specialist stroke and heart attack units at Wycombe Hospital.

A&E wait times are also on the rise, as Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust (BHT) failed to hit the 95 per cent target for patients who wait four hours or less before they are seen by medical staff.

At the end of 201/18 just 87.3 per cent of patients waited less than four hours before they were admitted, treated or discharged – a decline on the previous year.

Chief operating officer at BHT, Natalie Fox, blamed the rising figures on an increase in demand for services, but insisted staff work hard to make sure “patients are seen as quickly as possible”.

She said: “We have implemented a number of measures to make sure that patients receive the most appropriate care for their needs in the right place in a timely manner.

“These include nurses at the A&E front door to direct patients to the most appropriate care for their needs; access to a GP service within A&E; and five, new additional rapid assessment and treatment cubicles to ensure patients who arrive by ambulance are assessed by a senior clinician before being treated by the most appropriate team as quickly as possible.”