North West Ambulance Service's response times increased last month, and are far longer than NHS targets.
Ambulances took an average of nine minutes and 19 seconds to respond to category one calls - those for life threatening injuries - in England in October.
That’s up from eight minutes 43 seconds in September, and far longer than the seven minute target set by the NHS.
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Category two calls, which cover things like strokes, were responded to in an average of 58 minutes three seconds, well short of the 18 minute target. That’s up from 38 minutes 14 seconds the month before.
Category three calls, meanwhile, were dealt with in an average of four hours 28 minutes, compared to a target of two hours, and category four calls were responded to within an average of five hours 16 minutes, compared to a target of three hours.
To help to remedy the problems, North West Ambulance Service told the ECHO it is putting more front-line ambulance crews in place.
A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "Our staff are dedicated to ensuring everyone who needs an ambulance gets one.
"We remain under extreme pressure, including higher than normal levels of staff absence and continuing delays in handing over patients at hospitals, which means we can’t get back out quickly to help other people in the community.
"While patients suffering from life-threatening conditions will receive the next available ambulance, some patients are waiting longer than we would like. However, we perform better than other parts of the country.
"To mitigate this, we have added more call handlers and clinicians into our emergency and non-emergency call centres, as well as more front-line ambulance crews. We also continue working with NHS partners to ease handover delays.
"We are grateful to patients for considering alternatives for non-urgent health concerns, including NHS 111 online, GP or local pharmacy, which helps us keep our ambulances available for emergencies."
In England as a whole, category one calls were responded to in an average of nine minutes and 56 seconds. However, that figure doesn’t include London Ambulance Service, whose figures aren’t available for October.
Category two calls, meanwhile, were responded to in one hour one minute. Category three calls took an average of three hours 34 minutes, and category four calls in four hours one minute.
Response times vary across England. East of England Ambulance Service has the longest response time for category one calls at an average of 11 minutes and 12 seconds, and also the longest for category two at 26 minutes and 54 seconds.
North East Ambulance Service had the shortest response time for category one calls at eight minutes nine seconds, while South East Coast Ambulance Service had the shortest response time for category two calls at 36 minutes 54 seconds.
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