MERSEY Regional Ambulance Service (MRAS), which covers Cheshire, has missed a Government target for response times to emergency calls, according to recently released figures.

Of 31 ambulance services in the UK, MRAS is one of six who have failed to meet the two national response time targets for life-threatening calls.

The Government had set a target that 75% of these Category A calls would be responded to within eight minutes but only 73.7% of MRAS' ambulances responded within that time limit.

A similar target, to respond to 95% of emergency calls within 14 minutes, was also missed by the trust who responded to 91.9% in that time.

The figures again raised concerns about the ambulance coverage in rural Cheshire.

County Councillor Eveleigh Moore-Dutton said: 'It is disappointing but we need to balance the needs of areas which are more sparsely populated.'

Stephen O'Brien, MP for Eddisbury, added: 'In our area we need to ensure that all those based in sparsely spread communities in Eddisbury receive the quality and speed of response to which they are entitled and do not suffer a penalty for living in a rural area.

'I have grave concerns about the relocation of the Tattenhall Ambulance Station.

'I am making representations to the trust and ministers to ensure that they not only improve their service but increase their efforts to deliver.'

MRAS communications manager Mike Barker said: 'There is absolutely no link between response times and the Tattenhall situation.

Janet Davies, chief executive of MRAS, added: 'We have never hidden away from our responsibilities. We did say 18 months ago that turning this service round is going to take time.

'In the past 12 months we have treated and transported more people than ever before in our history.

'Our staff are one of the most advanced sets of clinical practitioners within the ambulance service community.

'Consequently many lives, that may have been lost, are being saved.' thomas.sieber@cheshirenews.co.uk