ONLY two-third of ambulances in Huddersfield have been getting to emergencies on time.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service got to just 66% of the most serious emergency call-outs in Kirklees within eight minutes, new 2009/10 figures show.

And the statistics for 2009/2010 mean Kirklees is ranked bottom in a regional league table of responses to ‘category A’ emergency call outs.

In Hull, 87.6% of the same calls got to the patients within the target time.

The figures, collated by the NHS Information Centre, show that in 2009/10 the trust as a whole hit the eight minute response target 70.8% of the time, falling short of the national 75% target.

In March the healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, warned the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust that it must improve and meet national targets by October 31.

The statistics have left the public asking why Kirklees more than other areas is affected.

One former staff member at the trust said: “A key factor is the nature of the territory they have to cover. In North Yorkshire it’s rural, but you can’t run West Yorkshire calls in the same way.

“Huddersfield is one of the biggest towns in Europe. There are major cities and a major motorway – it’s radically different.

“The hierarchy have struggled to cover that area and unless the system changes they will fall foul of the Care Quality Commission who gave them a deadline of October to make improvements.”

It left it trailing the other 11 ambulance services which were assessed.

The Trust has defended itself saying that although it missed the target, 75% of the most urgent calls were reached within eight minutes and 30 seconds.

They added that by the end of May 2010, year-to-date figures showed that it was reaching the target and added they were committed to making more improvements.

The trust is also citing the bad winter weather as a factor in its performance, saying that it had made progress despite a 6% increase in emergency calls during the worst cold snap in 30 years.

The figures reveal that across England the ambulance service took 7.87 million emergency and urgent calls in 2009/10 – 391,000 more than in the previous year.

It also completed 4.70 million urgent and emergency patient journeys in 2009/10, just over 191,000 more than in the previous year and figures for telephone advice which made up 8% of the least urgent calls.

Simon Worthington, acting chief executive of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, claimed: “The report shows that improvements in performance have been made and year on year we are reaching patients more quickly than before. We remain committed to making further improvements.

“Across Yorkshire in 2009-10 we received 710,916 999 urgent and emergency calls, almost 40,000 more than the previous year.

“During the last two years we have invested heavily in frontline resources by recruiting an additional 275 frontline staff, spending over £5.5 million modernising and expanding our fleet and making improvements to our 999 communications centres.

“The benefits of this investment mean that our response times continue to show steady improvement, particularly in reaching patients with potentially life-threatening illnesses or injuries more quickly.

“Response times are not the only way we measure the improvements to patient care and, at YAS, we are proud of the high-quality clinical care we provide.”

There are three ambulance stations in the Kirklees area – Huddersfield, Honley and Dewsbury.

Ambulance crews tend to respond dynamically from standby points – strategically positioned sites where ambulance vehicles are able to wait until they are needed to provide an emergency medical response to patients in and around the area.

The standby points are situated in locations where, historically, there have been high levels of demand and ensure that staff are best placed geographically.

The Trust says the standby locations are under regular review.

There are dedicated crews for the Kirklees area, but as a regional service the Trust has the flexibility to move crews into the area, particularly in the event of a major incident.

REGION 2008/9--------2009/10

Hull 86.1%--------87.6%

Sheffield 70.6%--------74.9%

Calderdale 65.0%--------72.8%

Rotherham 65.8%--------71.5%

Barnsley 69.6%--------71.2%

Region 69.4%--------70.8%

W’field Dist 68.8%--------70.6%

Leeds 68.3%--------70.2%

Br’ford/A’dale 69.2%--------69.8%

East Riding 72.0%--------69.4%

Doncaster 67.8%--------67.4%

N Yorkshire 68.5%v67.4%

KIRKLEES 63.0%--------66.0%