Long waiting times for ambulances on the Isle of Wight has led to the recent death of a resident.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has said it is investigating the incident.
It came to light in a report to the trust’s board this month as the health body continues to struggle with ambulance capacity issues.
The trust has said demand for ambulance services is currently exceeding its available capacity and has led to it failing to meet national response time targets.
In January, ambulance responses to category one (life-threatening) calls averaged 9 minutes and 25 seconds — the target is seven minutes.
Responses to category two (emergency) calls were 28 minutes and 31 seconds — the target is 18 minutes.
These times are the lowest they have been in four months but the demand is still causing the ambulance service to struggle and the trust is currently investigating a death associated with a long wait for an ambulance.
In December, the category two response times hit a high, with an average of 39 minutes and 45 seconds, which is double what it should be.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has apologised to anyone who has been affected by the service pressures.
A trust spokesperson said:
“We want to assure Islanders we are doing everything we can to continue to improve.”
The trust has said it invested in additional ambulances and recruited to ensure it can keep as many crews on the road as possible.
The increased capacity, it said, helped significantly, improving response time from some of the worst in the country in 2020 to among the best this year.
In the last 12 months, the trust has received more than 28,500 calls and a 25 per cent increase in ambulance call-outs on the Island over the past three years.
Surges still remain the service’s biggest challenge, the trust revealed, as it responds to an average of 86 call-outs a day but during busy periods this can rise to 115 or more.
The trust recognised “despite the improvement, there is still more to do”.
Recently, the trust has introduced a rapid response vehicle and deployed ambulance community first responders as well as fire and rescue volunteer responders, acting as an alternative to dispatching an ambulance.
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