Patient safety has been called into question as it emerged the region's ambulance trust is still failing to meet response targets in Norfolk.Several paramedics working for the East of England Ambulance Service have voiced their concerns over the repeated failure to get to patients within a set target, particularly within rural areas of the county.
Patient safety has been called into question as it emerged the region's ambulance trust is still failing to meet response targets in Norfolk.
Several paramedics working for the East of England Ambulance Service have voiced their concerns over the repeated failure to get to patients within a set target, particularly within rural areas of the county.
Under government targets, a minimum of 75pc of emergency calls should be responded to within eight minutes, but in Norfolk this regularly stands at less than 70pc.
This comes despite promises from ambulance service bosses last summer to improve efficiency by taking on 10 more call-takers to make call-handling better.
North Norfolk parliamentary candidate and Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said it was “disappointing” there were still so many problems with the ambulance service in Norfolk.
A Freedom of Information request he sent to the trust revealed that in the past year there have been times when less than 50pc of calls were answered within eight minutes.
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