Private health care patients 'benefiting from improved 999 response times'

Private health care patients in the north of England may have seen an improvement in 999 response times from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which has worked to better its practices following a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

On April 1st, the CQC judged that the organisation was not meeting standards of safety and quality, imposing a condition on its licence that it must progress in these areas.

Now, this has been lifted as response times have "improved markedly", with the trust demonstrating that between April and August of this year, it answered 76.1 per cent of category A (immediately life threatening) calls within eight minutes.

Regional director of the CQC Jo Dent said: "It is a credit to the trust that in the first four months of 2010-11, response times have been over and above the 75 per cent target."

Similarly, the body also recently found that Luton and Dunstable NHS Foundation Trust had improved its cleanliness and infection control, appropriately addressing the CQC's concerns.