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| Life-or-death 999 call target missed for year | Life-or-death 999 call target missed for year |
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| Ambulances have missed their target for responding to the most life-threatening calls for a whole year, new data shows. | Ambulances have missed their target for responding to the most life-threatening calls for a whole year, new data shows. |
| Crews are meant to reach patients who have had cardiac arrests or are not breathing - so-called Red 1 calls - within eight minutes. | Crews are meant to reach patients who have had cardiac arrests or are not breathing - so-called Red 1 calls - within eight minutes. |
| But performance data from NHS England for May showed for the 12th month in a row the 75% target has been missed. | But performance data from NHS England for May showed for the 12th month in a row the 75% target has been missed. |
| The target for Red 2 calls, for other life-threatening cases such as strokes, has not been met since January 2014. | The target for Red 2 calls, for other life-threatening cases such as strokes, has not been met since January 2014. |
| During May, 70.5% of Red 1 calls were met in eight minutes and for Red 2 calls it was 65%. | During May, 70.5% of Red 1 calls were met in eight minutes and for Red 2 calls it was 65%. |
| NHS England blamed the problem on the rising number of calls - there have been nearly 11m in the past year, an increase of 7% on the previous year. | |
| The figures from NHS England also showed the health service was struggling on a number of other fronts. | The figures from NHS England also showed the health service was struggling on a number of other fronts. |
| Targets for A&E, cancer care and routine operations have also been missed, while delays discharging patients from hospital have reached record levels. | Targets for A&E, cancer care and routine operations have also been missed, while delays discharging patients from hospital have reached record levels. |
| Matthew Swindells, of NHS England, said the figures showed the frontline was under "intense pressure", but added on a number of measures performance had improved on the previous month. | |
| He said accessing social care services run by councils remained a major issue in tackling the delays discharigng patients from hospital. |