Dozens of Somerset patients are having to wait more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to reach them in an emergency.

The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has published statistics showing how quickly its paramedics can attend a range of emergencies.

While response times for the most serious incidents have improved, around one in 25 people in the most serious situations still face a very long wait for an ambulance.

The trust has said it aims to improve this by recruiting more than 200 additional staff and acquiring more vehicles.

Steve Boucher, the trust’s county commander for Somerset, addressed the issue at a meeting on Somerset County Council’s adults and health scrutiny committee in Taunton on Wednesday morning (May 8).

On any given day there is a “waiting stack” in the trust’s call centre of patients who had called 999 and had been assessed, but were waiting for an ambulance to become available.

Mr Boucher said: “At any given time, the number of operational resources available will be less than the volume of calls from patients requiring a  response.”

In critical or life-threatening events (known as category one), it took one of the trusts’ ambulances an average of seven minutes to reach the scene – an improvement from nearly ten minutes 12 months ago.

But since April 2018, a total of 162 people – around one in 25 – in this situation have had to wait more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

In category two cases (where there is a risk of serious injury), ambulances typically take around 35 minutes to arrive – a mild improvement on around 37 minutes from 12 months ago.

The response time increases further as the severity of the injury decreases; a dislocated limb or non-serious burns (category three) could take around 90 minutes for a response, while non-urgent injuries (category four) could take up to two hours.

Councillor Mark Healey – who also sits on Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service – asked whether firefighters could be used to help out as first responders.

He said: “Can you adopt a practice of training firefighters and fire officers to help even more? Emergency services should be pulling together more and helping each other out.”

Mr Boucher said he was looking into this, stating: “It’s about having a range of options to get to people quickly.

“We need to look at how we use them [fire crews] on life-threatening calls. There are a lot of options and we need to work those through.”

Multiple councillors asked about “fallout” – where people rang for ambulances and then were taken to hospital by private car or other such means when the ambulance did not arrive in time.

Councillor Andrew Govier asked about cited an example of an unnamed elderly lady in his Wellington division, who was taken to hospital by private car after an ambulance had been called but failed to appear.

Mr Boucher replied: “We will always send resources to patients if it is available and appropriate.

“We pride ourselves on having high levels of patients who are managed in the community.”

He said an ongoing service and transformation plan (STP) for the ambulance service would ensure alternative services were available on a 24-hour basis to reduce the pressure on ambulance staff and vehicles.

He added: “If we are more responsive in the future, people having to ring up and cancel ambulances shouldn’t happen.”

Just over half (53 per cent) of Somerset residents who requested ambulances in 2018/19 ended up being taken to an emergency department, rather than being treated at the scene or taken to a non-emergency facility, such as a minor injuries unit.

Councillor Mandy Chilcott said ambulances could not reach very rural parts of the county (such as her Minehead division) in quick time, because of where ambulance stations were based.

She said: “My concern is there are a considerable number of calls which are considerably outside of target.

“If you live in a rural area, it’s impossible to get from where ambulances are based to where the call is from in the target time.”

Mr Boucher said there was “a good profile of resources” available in rural areas – including doctors and first responders – to ensure urgent calls could be answered even if an ambulance could not immediately attend.

Under the STP, the trust is aiming to recruit the equivalent of 241 full-time posts over the next two years, including more community-based first responders and graduate paramedics.

It has also received £6.72M from central government towards its vehicle fleet, which it will spend on converting 63 Fiat Ducato vans for medical use, alongside maintaining its existing ambulances.

These measures, along with others in the STP, are designed to increase its capacity, allowing it to respond more rapidly and appropriately to different kinds of emergency.