A PATIENT in Warrington waited more than 25 hours for an ambulance to arrive.

The call was of a category 2 nature which can include stroke and heart attack victims and should be responded to in an average of 18 minutes.

It comes following a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Liberal Democrats which was made to all 10 ambulance trusts in England.

The figures reveal the local authority areas with the worst response times in the country last year.

All but one local area missed the target for category 2 calls which are those classed as an emergency or a potentially serious condition that may require rapid assessment or urgent intervention.

In a case which is described as shocking by the Liberal Democrats, a patient in Warrington waited 25 hours and 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after a category 2 call.

This is 85 times longer than the 18-minute target.

Responding to this case, a North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said. “We have made significant progress in improving response times over the last 18 months by increasing staff and ambulance numbers.

“We have reduced the number of patients experiencing long waits and are one of the best-performing trusts in the country.

“We continue to work with our health care partners to ease pressures in the system.”

NWAS also noted that the incidents from which the longest times come from typically include hospital transfers and cases that have been upgraded from something less serious.

Other long waits in the country included in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent where a call out took 25 hours and 27 minutes to respond to and in East Lancashire where the response time for one case was 22 hours and 52 minutes.

The local area with the worst category 2 response time last year was Cornwall, with potential heart attack and stroke victims facing an average wait of one hour and nine minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

In Warrington, figures revealed an average wait of 37 minutes and 26 seconds for 37 minutes and 26 seconds for a category 2 call.

Only Windsor and Maidenhead met the Category 2 target with calls responded to within an average of just over 16 minutes.

Following the FOI revelation, the Liberal Democrats have criticised the government for their ‘decimation’ of the NHS and have called for urgent investment in ambulance services.

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said: “Calling an ambulance when you or a loved one is in a serious emergency is one of the most distressing moments of someone's life. The least people deserve is to know that an ambulance will be able to reach them in time. Sadly, too often that is not happening as these devastating figures show.

“This Conservative government has overseen the complete decimation of local NHS services. Under the Conservative Party the health service has faced unforgivable neglect and it is patients who are bearing the brunt.

“We urgently need investment in our ambulance services. For too long staff have not been given the resources they need and patients have been left to suffer unnecessarily. Conservative MPs should hang their heads in shame.”