There’s been concern in Over Wyre about ambulance response times. Some weeks ago I wrote to the North West Ambulance Service requesting details about how long it takes for paramedics to attend rural constituents in Knott End, Preesall and Pilling.

The service has replied with average response times calculated between September 2017 and September 2018.

For serious life threatening emergencies like cardiac arrest or allergic reaction it took an ambulance on average 37 minutes to reach Pilling, 29 minutes to reach Preesall and 25 minutes to get to Knott End. Regionally these calls will be responded to in an average time of 7 minutes and at least 9 out of 10 times within 15 minutes.

For emergency calls to illnesses like strokes, burns or epilepsy the average ambulance time to Preesall was 1 hour and 3 minutes, 53 minutes to Pilling and 51 minutes to Knott End. Regionally these calls will be responded to in an average time of 18 minutes and at least 9 out of 10 times within 40 minutes.

For urgent calls which include late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes it took ambulances on average 2 hours and 33 minutes to reach Pilling, 2 hours and 29 minutes to get to Knott End and 2 hours and 27 minutes to reach Preesall. Regionally these types of calls will be responded to at least 9 out of 10 times within 120 minutes.

For less urgent calls like vomiting and urinary infections it took paramedics 2 hours and 18 minutes to get to Knott End and 1 hour and 44 minutes to get to Preesall – there were no recorded figures for Pilling. Regionally these less urgent calls will be responded to at least 9 out of 10 times within 180 minutes.

Rural areas are already at a disadvantage when it comes to the provision of services and public transport but I’m particularly concerned that response times are so poor for emergency and urgent calls. I’ll be asking what can be done to improve these times. If you have observations or concerns then please get in touch with me.