Patients in Newham with potentially life-threatening conditions are having to wait longer for an ambulance than most other London boroughs.
Ambulances in the borough didn’t reach patients within eight minutes 41 per cent of the time in August – the fifth highest percentage of call-outs that missed the eight minute target in the whole of London that month.
The service blamed a shortage of paramedics and increased demand for the problem.
The number of ambulances hitting response time targets in the borough fell significantly between March and August, from 85pc.
Analysis of response times by Labour London Assembly Member John Biggs shows the eight-minute target in the capital as a whole has also dropped – by 19pc, to 62pc.
He said this reflected the strain being placed on the London Ambulance Service at a time when its budget is suffering government cuts of £53m.
But a spokesman for London Ambulance Service (LAS) criticised Mr Biggs’ figures.
He said they had been worked out with the assumption the LAS target is 100pc of people seen within eight minutes when, in fact, it is 75pc.
Assistant Director of Operations at London Ambulance Service, Natasha Wills, said the strain on the service was down to an increase in demand each year and a shortage of paramedics in the UK.
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