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| Ambulance delays: Wales targets missed in every area | Ambulance delays: Wales targets missed in every area |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Wales' ambulances failed to meet national response time targets for life-threatening calls in every local authority area last month. | Wales' ambulances failed to meet national response time targets for life-threatening calls in every local authority area last month. |
| All-Wales figures for March show 53.3% of emergency responses arrived within eight minutes of the Welsh Ambulance Service target is 65%. | |
| Denbighshire narrowly missed the target but in Rhondda Cynon Taff, only 42.1% of ambulances arrived within the time. | Denbighshire narrowly missed the target but in Rhondda Cynon Taff, only 42.1% of ambulances arrived within the time. |
| The latest figures have been described as an "absolute disgrace". | The latest figures have been described as an "absolute disgrace". |
| A total of 37,724 calls were made to ambulance services in March and of those, 16,060 were classed as immediately life-threatening. | |
| Individual local authorities areas within the Welsh Ambulance Service have a lower target of 60% for the calls, but this was only reached in four out of the 22 areas. | |
| These were Denbighshire (64.9%), Conwy (63.3%), Wrexham (62.6%) and Pembrokeshire (61.3%). | |
| Alongside Rhondda Cynon Taff at the bottom of the response time league table for the most serious calls category were Merthyr Tydfil (43.5%), Flintshire (44.9%) and Torfaen (45.1%). | |
| 'Inevitable distress' | |
| Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams accused Welsh ministers of failing to address the issue calling the figures an "absolute disgrace". | |
| "I recognise that there were a large amount of calls in March with difficult weather conditions, but there really is no excuse for these appalling figures," she said. "Welsh Labour Ministers should hang their heads in shame." | |
| Conservative health spokesman Darren Millar said ambulance response times had dropped to a "shockingly low level" and an explanation was needed urgently. | |
| "Only half of life-threatening calls received a timely response in March and that means inevitable distress for thousands of patients," Mr Millar said. | |
| "Every minute lost can harm a patient's recovery chances and delays can lead to death." | |
| The Welsh government and the Welsh Ambulance Service have been asked to comment. |