Ref. 24670-31WILTSHIRE Ambulance Service is failing to meet targets for responding to life threatening emergency calls, having met the Department of Health levels just once in the last eight months.

But the service is pinning its hopes on major investment to reverse the services ailing fortunes.

The Government states that 75 per cent of all life threatening 999 calls, which include chest pains, heart attacks, unconscious patients and allergic reactions, should have an ambulance on the scene within eight minutes.

Ambulances missing the eight-minute target range from being just a minute late to taking an extra 10 minutes.

The extra time could have life threatening consequences for patients in the highest priority category, who can be suffering from cardiac arrest or who have stopped breathing.

The latest figures from the ambulance trust show that in May, 66.95 per cent of priority cases were attended within the eight-minute target time, against the 75 per cent Government target.

In April, the figure was 70.76 and in March it was 69.18.

Chief executive Dennis Lauder said: "Obviously we need to do something to pull us out of this.

"We have been set a target to attend all of our highest priority emergency calls within eight minutes, anywhere in the county.

"This is a challenging target because of the predominantly rural nature of the county. Our service is working hard to deal with more than 40,000 emergency calls each year."

He said that the service had seen an 11 per cent increase in the number of emergency calls this year.

"We have no option but to try to meet the targets and we have received a lot of support from the strategic health authority with a £40,000 investment."

He explained that the money will be used to boost the number of motorcycle response ambulances based around the county including Swindon, in an effort to drive down response times.

Mr Lauder, who has been the chief executive of the trust for seven years, explained that this year had been his worst.

And he said the service's poor performance would undoubtedly be reflected in the trust's star rating, due to be published on July 16.

"We are also looking at how we can restructure the service to make it more efficient. It is a difficult time for the ambulance staff. No-one likes being criticised. They are the salt of the earth and they work extremely hard at what they do. We are just going to have to ride the storm and work hard to turn the service around. If we don't, the buck stops with me."