Nearly 1,000 Maldon patients suffering from serious conditions have waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance in the past year, the Standard can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request reveals there were 958 residents with emergencies ranging from serious to life-threatening conditions who had to wait at least 30 minutes for care between June 2014 and last month.

Of those, 68 were classified by the East of England ambulance service as “Red 1” or “Red 2”, and requiring an emergency response with blue lights.

Emergency responses are getting better, according to ambulance service locality director Rob Ashford.
Mr Ashford said the trust was one of the worst performing nationwide 18 months ago, but it is now ranked in the top three.
With 146 staff vacancies, equating to 17 per cent of his work force, he said the trust was working hard to
combat the situation by increasing recruitment and vehicles.