Tough targets may cost lives

11:33am Friday 18th January 2008

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New, tougher response targets for emergency call-outs could end up costing more lives than they save, it has been warned.

Under current regulations, ambulances have eight minutes to be on the scene of an emergency, with the countdown starting from when the initial call to the operator ends.

However, from April 1, when the new governmental targets come into force, the clock will instead start ticking from when the operator picks up the call.

Crews will also have 45 seconds to leave the ambulance depot.

And paramedics have warned the lost 90 seconds of "processing time" will reduce their ability to assess how serious a case is and could see them attending more non life-threatening situations.

Rob Ashford, locality chief operating officer for the East of England Ambulance Service, said: "What it means is that, whereas before we had about eight and a half minutes to work with, now we only have the true eight minutes.

"And in order for us to respond quicker it often means we are responding on less information."

The service estimates around 30 percent of calls it receives are "Category A", or life-threatning. And it says the sterner targets will mean more drivers are setting off to incidents without knowing the gravity of the situation.