FIGURES made public for the first time show how the Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) is failing rural areas.

The national target for all ambulance services is to send an ambulance to life threatening calls (Category A calls) within eight minutes, 75 per cent of the time.

GWAS, which serves Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire, has released information on its response times by district council area and bottom of the table is Kennet where last month GWAS achieved just 35.9 per cent in responding to life threatening calls.

This involved 170 life threatening calls, of which 61 had a response within eight minutes.

In North Wiltshire GWAS achieved 54 per cent, in West Wiltshire 67.6 per cent, in Salisbury 73.9 per cent and in Swindon 79.1 per cent.

The best response time was recorded in Cheltenham where 86.8 per cent was achieved, closely followed by Bristol and Gloucester.

GWAS has admitted that it aims to achieve the eight minute response 85 per cent of the time in urban areas such as Swindon and Bristol - but in rural areas it aims to achieve the same target only 60 per cent of the time.

By exceeding the national target in certain areas GWAS hopes to achieve the 75 per cent target as an overall figure.

The information on response times was released by GWAS to the Great Western Ambulance Joint Health Scrutiny Committee last Friday.

Ian Whittern, chairman of the GWAS branch of the union Unison, told the committee, which met in Trowbridge, that in Wiltshire GWAS management had cut a day crew from Warminster and Devizes and a night crew at weekends in Swindon and Trowbridge.