Diane Abbott MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, speaking in response to NHS England’s combined performance statistics data said:

“The recent ambulance waiting times are quite shocking. Standards keep slipping and the situation is clearly getting worse. The Government’s failure to get a grip on waiting times is compromising patient safety and putting patients at risk.

“Nearly one in three ambulances aren’t arriving within the 8 minute target.

“Jeremy Hunt wants to blame everyone else for the crisis in the NHS. It his Government’s fault for underfunding it.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• Ambulance services in England are missing their waiting times target in July
• The target is that 75% of all emergency ambulance should be met in 8 minutes, but in July it was just 67.6%, one of the worst on record
• The target waiting time was last achieved in December 2013 and has been on a deteriorating trend since
• NHS England data on A&E waiting times https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Monthly-AE-Report-July16.pdf