EMERGENCY ambulance response times improved dramatically in Torfaen during August, after a year of being among the worst in Wales.

More than six-in-10 (62.1 per cent) category A emergency calls were reached inside eight minutes, against just four-in-10 (40.8 per cent) in July.

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust has not commented on the improvement in an area where poor response times have attracted much criticism, particularly after a very busy December last year, when fewer than two-in-10 emergency calls were reached inside eight minutes.

But the improvement, allied to a big increase in the amount of such calls reached inside the target time in neighbouring Newport, indicates that long talked about plans to strengthen management and resources on the ground, may be bearing fruit.

Almost seven-in-10 (68.4 per cent) of Newport category A emergency calls were reached inside eight minutes in August, against 53.3 per cent in July.

Ambulance chiefs will now be hoping that the improvement can be sustained into what is likely to be a very busy autumn and winter, and beyond.

Wales-wide, the ambulance service was not as busy in August as during July, and there were 781 emergency calls from Torfaen to the ambulance service in August, against 873 in July.

But August 2009 was busier than August 2008, yet last year only 44.4 per cent of category A calls in Torfaen met the standard.

Around half of emergency calls are classified as category A, requiring a response of eight-minutes or less.

Taking other emergency calls out of the picture, the August improvement in Torfaen is equivalent to around an extra 100 patients being reached inside eight minutes.

Hospital handovers tackled as major issue

ONE area where action is being taken is in tackling long handover times at hospitals, with the trust sending regional officers into the Royal Gwent Hospital to try to ease the problem.

The issue is a major headache for ambulance chiefs, crews often delayed beyond the target 15 minutes for handing over patients to A&E staff, keeping much-needed ambulances stuck in hospital drop-off zones.

This has been a problem across Wales and particularly at the Royal Gwent, and though deployment of ambulance officers to A&E is only meant to happen at the busiest times, it is a regular occurrence here.

As late as July just four in 10 handovers at Welsh hospitals occurred inside the target 20 minutes.

"On occasions, the worst of days, ambulance officers are spending up to 16 hours at the A&E departments," according to a recent trust report.