Responding to an article in the Yorkshire Post (available here), Stuart has written to the Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the Secretary of State for Health to seek answers on why emergency response times to top-priority calls have not met their target times at all in some areas of Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough.
Stuart has raised concern that in LS20, there were no Category Red 1 calls responded to within the eight minute target on time. However, in some areas of Leeds City Centre, 100% of calls were responded to on time. Stuart has commented:
“I am very concerned that these finding show that YAS appear to not be responding to any calls on time in some parts of my constituency. This needs to be looked into urgently, and I will be raising this directly with the service to see what action they are taking to change this. More widely, I want to see response times approve across the country. It should not be a postcode lottery.”
Writing to the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Stuart pledged to do all that he can to ensure that response times improve across Leeds. The letter said:
Stuart has also asked that if any constituents experience delays in ambulance service, that they contact him to express their concerns. This can be done by emailing stuart.andrew.mp@parliament.uk or phoning 0113 258 5615.
Since contacting the Department of Health, they have highlighted the unprecedented demand faced by ambulance services across the country. The Department is continuing to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to monitor and support performance this year. The full response from the Department of Health can be read below.