AMBULANCE response times in England have hit a record high, with paramedics warning that patients’ lives are being put at risk. 

Figures released today show that the average response time in October for the most urgent incidents — defined as life-threatening illnesses or injuries such as a cardiac arrest — was nine minutes and 20 seconds, compared with a target of seven minutes.

For emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes, response times took an average of 53 minutes and 54 seconds — up from 45 minutes and 30 seconds in September — according to the NHS England figures. 

Response times for both types of incidents were the longest on average since records began in August 2017. 

Paramedics have spoken out about their fears over patients safety. “Every day services are holding hundreds of 999 calls with no-one to send,” College of Paramedics member Richard Webber told the BBC, adding that “patients are waiting too long and that is putting them at risk.”

Healthcare workers’ union Unison head of health Sara Gorton said the delays were also causing distress to ambulance crews and control room staff. 

“They can’t respond as quickly as they would like to emergency calls,” she said. “Staff are increasingly concerned that pressures on the system are compromising their codes of conduct.”

It came as NHS bosses warned of “unsustainable” pressures on the health service today as patient waiting lists also hit a new record. 

At the end of September, there were a total of 5.8 million people waiting to start treatment — the highest number since records began in August 2007, NHS England figures show. 

The data also showed a record 7,059 people had to wait more than 12 hours at A&Es to be admitted.

Healthcare think tank the King’s Fund’s senior analyst Deborah Ward said the figures pointed to a healthcare system “now on its knees.”

Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called on ministers to urgently “fix the stalling vaccination programme, resolve the immediate crisis in social care and bring forward a long-term plan to recruit the health care staff our NHS now desperately needs.”

The government has previously claimed that the health service was under “sustainable pressure.” 

But Health Foundation charity senior fellow Tim Gardener said that, given waiting lists were at an all-time high, “it would be extraordinary to look at what’s happening in the NHS right now and claim that it is sustainable.”