HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for “an urgent response” by the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) after figures published in last week’s Herald showed almost a thousand 999 calls were left unanswered in March.

According to NHS England, 984 emergency calls were ‘abandoned before being answered’ by SECAmb during the third month of the year - four times more than year earlier - while SECAmb crews also attended only 62 per cent of the most time critical ‘Category A Red 1’ cases - within the eight minute target in March.

The ambulance service blamed its poor performance on an overwhelming surge in demand - with the total number of 999 calls directed to SECAmb increasing by 30 per cent between April 2015 and March 2016 - and has outlined measures to improve its call handling.

Responding this week, Mr Hunt, who is also the MP for South West Surrey, defended the ambulance service by warning statistics such as unanswered 999 calls can be misleading, but added urgent improvements must be found.

“It is of course very concerning that a number of 999 calls appear to be going unanswered and some response times are too slow,” Mr Hunt told The Herald.

“However, it is also true to say that there are some local month-by-month variations which can be a little misleading – in particular ‘calls abandoned before being answered’, which are not necessarily the fault of a Trust.

“Regional ambulance services receive and manage tens of thousands of calls daily and are operating under enormous pressure. However, we need the service to improve so I have already written to Sir Peter Dixon, chairman of SECAmb for an urgent response to these issues.”

Ambulance union GMB also called on the Government to investigate how SECAmb managers have been held to account this week following a disastrous three-month pilot project that delayed emergency crew response times by an extra 10 minutes.

SECAmb’s chief executive Paul Sutton - whose salary, pension and benefits package was worth more than £255,000 a year - left his job “to pursue other interests” in the wake of the scandal last week.

However, the GMB has demanded to know what steps have been taken to prevent a repeat of the scheme that resulted in up to 20,000 patients, including those with life-threatening problems such as strokes and fits, having to wait twice as long for emergency treatment.

Paul Maloney, GMB regional secretary, said: “GMB members and the public will want to know what steps the board of SECAmb has taken to hold executives to account for this terrible affair where the public was put at risk for completely unjustified reasons.

“GMB members and the public are flabbergasted that such a serious matter has now disappeared into a room of smoke and mirrors.

“GMB consider that there should be an inquiry by the House of Commons Health Select Committee into how the board and the regulator have dealt with the aftermath of the scandal and how executives have been held to account for this. It cannot be swept under the carpet.

“Does the trust really believe that such a trivial statement sweeping this serious matter will satisfy the public anger?”

It comes after an independent review, published in March by Deloitte, found evidence of an “intentional effort by members of the executive team” to present the ill-fated scheme in a positive light despite its governance failings and risks.

Executives ran their project - without approval - to delay sending ambulances until advisers had time to assess some calls coming through the 111 telephone system.

National rules say 75 per cent of Category A Red 2 calls - for conditions regarded as serious, such as strokes or fits - should have an emergency response at the scene within eight minutes.

Under the controversial scheme, the ambulance trust gave itself up to 10 extra minutes to reassess what type of advice or treatment patients needed, and whether an ambulance was really necessary.

But patients were kept in the dark about the project, as were 111 call handlers and the trust’s board.

SECAmb’s chairman, Tony Thorne, also confirmed his resignation in March.