EMERGENCY ambulance response times across much of Gwent during March continued to be among the poorest in Wales, despite improvements on performance earlier in the winter.

The percentage of category A (immediately life threatening) emergency calls that received an on-scene response inside eight minute standard, increased in four out of five areas in Gwent, albeit from an already low level.

But four areas - Caerphilly, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Blaenau Gwent - were among the bottom 10 in Wales in terms of performance against the 60 per cent target, with the emergency response times performance in Caerphilly and Torfaen the second and third poorest respectively, across Wales.

Sixty per cent of category A calls should be answered inside eight minutes at council area level, with the all-Wales target being 65 per cent.

Just five out of the 22 council areas in Wales enjoyed a category A calls response rate above 60 per cent in March. Newport (56.6 per cent) was the best performing area in Gwent.

Performance across the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area in March was 47.6 per cent, again against a 60 per cent target, and was the second poorest among Wales's seven health board areas.

Compared to the ambulance service's performance in Gwent in December - when the worst-ever category A response times were recorded - the situation has improved considerably, with all five council areas more than 10 percentage points up in responses against the eight-minute standard.

But more than 1,300 category A calls still did not receive an on-scene response inside eight minutes.

In recent months, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust has begun to publish performance figures for Red 1 call responses,. Red 1 calls are the most time critical and cover patients who have suffered a cardiac arrest or stopped breathing.

Three areas of Gwent - Caerphilly, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent - were among the 10 lowest performing areas of Wales in terms of RED 1 responses inside eight minutes.

In Caerphilly, just 51.6 per cent (48 out of 93) Red 1 calls received an on-scene response inside eight minutes.

Closing the gap between this figure and that in the best performing area, Conwy (81 per cent), remains a major challenge for ambulance and health board bosses.