MIDDLEWICH and Winsford residents making life-or-death 999 calls may have to wait longer for an ambulance than anywhere else in the region, it has been revealed.

South Cheshire, which covers both towns, is the only health authority area out of six across the county and Merseyside, that has not reported an improvement in ambulance emergency response time targets over the past year.

Ambulance services across the country have been forced to improve standards to meet the Government's new response time targets - which requires 75 per cent of emergency calls to be responded to within eight minutes.

Challenges

But despite the fact that Mersey Regional Ambulance NHS Trust remains one of the top performing Trusts in the country, the Government initiative has not yet been achieved in the South Cheshire area.

Following the Trust's annual general meeting on Thursday, a spokesman for Mersey Regional Ambulance Service, said: "The coming year presents new challenges to the Trust as we continue to provide a frontline service against a backdrop of change within the NHS.

"Our priorities will be to develop a more proactive research and development programme and initiate new community-based schemes to improve response times.

"South Cheshire, our most rural area, remains the one health authority area yet to meet the new eight-minute standard and we will be looking at ways of improving in the coming year."

However, there is good news on the health front for Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Leighton Hospital and Northwich's Victoria Infirmary.

The Trust received two out of three stars in the new ratings system announced yesterday, Tuesday, following the first nationwide assessment of NHS performances.