MANY ambulances responding to life-threatening emergencies across the county are not meeting target times.

Ambulance crews have a target of reaching 75 per cent of category A – defined as potentially immediately life-threatening – calls within eight minutes.

However, over the last 12 months, that target has been reached in just one month in the county.

Rachael Hamilton, South of Scotland MSP, stressed it was “vital” that the times improved.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request looking at ambulance response times shows the average response time from July 2014 to June the following year was nine minutes and nine seconds, when responding to 1,937 calls.

That figure has increased over the following 12 months (July 2015 to June 2016), with the average response to category A calls now nine minutes and 26 seconds, when responding to 2,092 calls.

Mrs Hamilton told the Courier: “Responding to a category A call within eight minutes is incredibly challenging.

“But it’s vital that we see response times in East Lothian for these incidents improve. This means that we need to ensure the ambulance service gets the resources it needs to do this.

“We need to find a solution to make sure Scottish Ambulance can meet its target of eight minutes. To have an overall average time exceeding nine minutes shows us the ambulance service in East Lothian needs more support.

“In a life and death situation every minute counts and we need to find ways to make sure people can be responded to faster.”

Just once did the average response time between July 2015 and June this year dip below eight minutes.

That came in May, when the average response time was seven minutes, 56 seconds. In contrast, the average response time has surpassed 10 minutes three times over the same period, with the highest coming in February, with a time of 10 minutes, 24 seconds.

Mrs Hamilton was keen to highlight the more positive picture when it came to dealing with category B, defined as serious but not life threatening, calls, for which the target is to respond to 95 per cent of calls in 19 minutes.

The average between July last year and June was 15 minutes and 23 seconds, when responding to a total of 5,251 incidents.

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said ambulance teams were “busier than ever” as emergency demand continues to increase.

He said: “The service is addressing this by investing in an additional frontline staff and a five-year recruitment programme will create 1,000 new paramedics in Scotland. This will improve cover, enhance the clinical skills mix of our staff and introduce new ways of working to best meet the needs of patients.

“While response time is an important aspect of pre-hospital care, the clinical expertise of ambulance teams is key to maintaining good patient outcomes.

“The ongoing development of clinical skills is reflected in the consistently high survival rates that are now being achieved in Scotland as more lives are saved by ambulance teams every year.

“Response times are be affected by several factors, such as surges in 999 demand and requests for hospital transfers, as well as changing weather conditions and turnaround times at hospitals. In a potentially life-threatening emergency, the nearest available ambulance is always dispatched straightaway.”