AMBULANCE waiting times have reached a “dangerous” level for North-East patients with life threatening conditions, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Statistics show 35 per cent of the most seriously ill patients in the region are left in danger for longer than eight minutes.

The figure represents a 13 per cent rise since 2012 when 22 per cent of emergency calls took more than eight minutes for the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) to respond too.

The Government’s target is that 75 per cent of all life threatened callers are reached within eight minutes.

The GMB Union, who comprised the statistics, described them as “disgraceful.”

Billy Coates, regional secretary for GMB Northern Region, said: “These figures clearly show Government tactics of underfunding and privatising the NHS are putting lives in danger.

“The result is dying patients are left with a desperately long wait for emergency care.

“GMB members put their heart and soul into the life-saving work they do for our health service.”

Statistics published by NHS England show there were 1,036 calls resulting in an emergency response in the region in November 2016, with only 672 of them arriving within the target.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said the “shocking” statistics was another example of a system that is “failing due to cuts in health and social care.”

“Our paramedics do a magnificent job - they and their patients deserve better.”

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer at the NEAS NHS Foundation Trust, said they had “continued to perform in line with the national average.”

“We are reaching around 370 potentially life-threatening incidents within eight minutes – a figure we were achieving three years’ ago when our performance standard exceeded the national targets.

“The difference now is that a greater proportion of the 999 incidents we attend are assessed as being potentially life-threatening.

“Despite the increasing red demand and deteriorating response times and the quality of the care delivered by NEAS crews has remained high.

Other NHS statistics show the Christmas and New Year period was the busiest time on record for NHS staff working across the region’s hospitals and for the North East Ambulance Service.

In the three-week period covering December 19 to January 8, there were over 43,000 attendances at the region’s major A&E departments.

Mr Liversidge added: “We are currently in discussion with our Clinical Commissioning Groups about what further support can be given to help with these pressures.”