Watch my speech on improving ambulance wait times in South Devon

According to January 2024 figures, South West Ambulance Services constituently ranked near the bottom of all categories for ambulance response.

The mean response times were nearly all below NHS targets, and the longest Cat4 response was over 9 hours against a target of 3.

Anyone who’s driven down our narrow country lanes will appreciate why it may take ambulances longer to get to patients in South Devon than in an urban area.

But these results are alarming for two reasons: 1) the waiting times for stroke victims were particularly long; and 2) these figures may get even worse if some out of hours cardiac care is moved from Torbay Hospital to Exeter.

At a Westminster Hall debate, I outlined my concerns, shared the shocking revelations from her meeting with the cardiac team at Torbay Hospital, and called for the Government to publish accessible localised reports of ambulance response times and create an emergency fund to reverse closures of community ambulance stations, which are particularly vital in rural areas.