Ambulances failed to reach the most life-threatening emergencies in Sussex within the target time in five of the last ten months.

South East Coast Ambulance service (SECAmb) did not meet Government targets for Red 1 calls – the most time-critical calls where people do not have a pulse, are not breathing or are seriously ill.

But a spokesman for the trust said that the total average for the last 12 months exceeded the Government target.

It was one of six ambulance trusts in the country which did not have a rapid enough response.

Ambulances must reach the emergency within eight minutes in at least 75 per cent of call outs.

Unsion rep Mary Laxton said the failure to meet the target was caused by winter pressures, 30 per cent of patients in accident and emergency being there unnecessarily and delaying paramedics and the chaos of the new 111 healthcare
advice system.

She described the situation as a “whole vicious circle”.

A spokesman for SECAmb said the calls make up less than 10 per cent of total calls and throughout the last financial year there was an average response time on less than seven minutes.

He added: “SECAmb recognises the importance of response times and exceeded government targets by reaching 75.2 per cent of the most serious and life- threatening calls (Red 1 category) within eight minutes between April 2012 and March 2013.

“While response times are important, what is also vital is the treatment patients receive once our clinicians arrive at the scene of an emergency.

"We are pleased that the government now places a greater emphasis on patient outcomes as well as response times.

"This is something we had been calling for a number of years.

“Along with all parts of the NHS, SECAmb has been and continues to be extremely busy.

"We recognise that there can be variation in our performance in terms of response times throughout the year.

“While every effort is made to meet our performance targets at all times, variation can exist because of challenging weather conditions or unanticipated increases in demand – for example at times over the Christmas period, 999 call volume was more than 20 per cent higher than the previous year.

“SECAmb staff are working extremely hard to meet this increase in demand and the Trust is committed to providing an excellent service to our patients across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.”