Some North East patients waiting hours for an ambulance

The data, released through the Freedom of Information Act, reveals that in 2023 patients across the region on category two calls were left to wait up to seven hours for an ambulance from the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS).

Targets state that category one calls, which deal with patients suffering from life-threatening injuries including heart attacks should be attended to within seven minutes.

Category Two calls, for emergency calls including strokes aim to be attended to within 18 minutes.

However, the longest response time data for category two calls reveals that at least one patient in Middlesbrough waited 6 hours and 48 minutes for an ambulance in 2023, and another in County Durham waited 6 hours and 37 minutes.

The current average wait for a Category Two call is 34 minutes.

Comparatively, the longest wait for a category one response was 45 minutes in Northumberland, whilst in Darlington one patient waited 38 minutes.

Look at our map below to see the longest waiting times for ambulances where you are.

In response to the statistics, NEAS stated that further investment has improved their response times in the last year whilst coping with "increased demand".

Deputy chief operating officer of NEAS, Victoria Court said: "Over the last 12 months, we have employed 46 extra paramedics and increased our fleet with 16 additional double-crewed ambulances with additional investment from our commissioners to recover our response time performance.

"The committed and determined effort of all our staff on the road and in our emergency operations centres have made us the fastest ambulance service in the country to the most critically ill patients. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Trust for their incredible hard work.

"Although the issues we face are not unique to the North East, we have implemented a plan to recover our category 2 performance with more staff, vehicles and improved efficiency across our service. The results can be seen in the progress we’ve made in the last 12 months.

"However, we have also seen a significant increase in demand, way above what we expected, which has been a challenge across the NHS for all services."

However, compared to the rest of the UK, the North East has the fastest ambulance response time for category one calls with an average patient waiting 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

The longest wait came in at just over ten minutes in the South East, and just under nine minutes in Yorkshire.

In the North West, another patient waited nearly 26 hours for an ambulance.

Reacting to the statistics, MPs have concluded that there is still progress to be made.

Darlington’s Conservative MP Peter Gibson said: “It is good to see that Ambulance response times are improving thanks to increased investment, new recruits, new vehicles and multiple routes into our hospitals, but I acknowledge that further improvements are required.

“Having spent time with the Ambulance service myself and listened to staff, I’ve seen first-hand how hard these dedicated professionals work. Our ambulance service is a precious resource and should only be used in an emergency.”

Labour MP for Durham City, Mary Kelly Foy, added: “Ever-increasing waiting times for an ambulance is yet another symptom of how the Tories have ruined our NHS.

“When every second counts, people shouldn’t be left waiting for category 1 or 2 calls.

“This isn’t the fault of paramedics, either - many of whom are overworked and underpaid. Their concerns have been repeatedly ignored by the Department of Health and Social Care.

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“In order to bring these excessive waiting times down, we need to expand the NHS workforce and get more ambulances on the road.

“The only way we can do this is by kicking the Tories out of power at the next General Election and voting for the Labour Party.”

A report from January 2023 stated that the average response time for category 2 calls across the North East was 1:36:23 - nearly triple the current average weight of 34 minutes.