Despite the impact of Omicron, the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) NHS Trust has managed to slash its response times - for the first time since July 2021 the service has been reaching the most serious patients, on average, quicker than the national seven minute target.
NEAS ' performance when attending call-outs has improved across the board according to newly-released January data - and bosses have put this down to a reduction in demand and staff returning from sick-related absence.
The service is the second-best performing in the country when it comes to getting to category one calls - where someone is in a "life threatening condition". Only the London Ambulance Service performs better than the NEAS average of six minutes and 48 seconds.
