THE ambulance service is forced to rely on rapid response vehicles because paramedics are tied up with false alarms, it has been claimed.

New figures show the East of England Ambulance Service sent rapid response cars to 42 per cent of its emergency call outs in April. The figure for the same period last year was 31 per cent.

Critics say the increase suggests the service is using the cars to improve response times - even though they cannot take most patients to hospital.

A paramedic told how lives are being put at risk.

Bessie Bannister, 95, of Linden Way, Canvey, stumbled and fell in her garden as she was enjoying the sunshine in July last year.

The great-grandmother-of-one fractured both her pelvis and thigh bone - but it took more than two-and-a-half hours for paramedics to arrive.

Despite the delay she experienced, she has backed the under-fire service.

She said: “Sometimes they send an ambulance out and when they get there it’s something silly, like a cut finger.

“I think they do a good job. They went to a neighbour recently and were there within ten minutes.”

The service is set to face increasing pressure under the Mid and South Essex Success Regime, which will see ambulances transport the most seriously ill patients from Southend and Chelmsford to Basildon Hospital - which will become the designated emergency centre for the area.

A senior paramedic told the Health Service Journal that bosses are “fixated” with response times. He said: “Care, patient safety and dignity are really being badly compromised. Everyone has horror stories. It’s as bad as I can remember.”

The figures were obtained by Unison under the Freedom of Information Act.

Union spokesman Sara Gorton said: “The response time recorded for 999 calls should be at the point a patient gets the treatment they need.

"For many that will only be when an ambulance to take them to hospital arrives.”
An ambulance service spokesman said the trust is reducing the number of rapid response vehicle hours.

He said: “The trust does not put targets before safety, but prioritises its response to the sickest patients.”