West Midlands Ambulance Service is being monitored closely by NHS West Midlands bosses after reaching “crisis point” with over-stretched paramedics failing to get to almost half of life or death emergencies within the government target of eight minutes.
Ambulance chief executive Anthony Marsh has blamed swine flu and an “unprecedented” surge in calls, which are 20 per cent up on this time last year, for the alarming slump of responding to 999 calls since May.
He is hoping an independent review being carried out will force local health trusts to give the service more cash.
He said chiefs were staggered by 71,571 people inundating the control room in July compared to 59,595 in the same month last year.
Government rules say that paramedics must reach at least 75 per cent of the most serious calls within eight minutes. But figures show that for the West Midlands service that fell to as low as 43.7 per cent in Birmingham and the Black Country at the beginning of July and has remained below 57 per cent since then.
The average number of emergencies reached within eight minutes across the region dipped to 55 per cent five weeks ago and is now at about 63 per cent.
