Calls were last night made for the region's failing ambulance to be broken up to improve responses and services for patients.

A Norfolk MP said the time was right to split the East of England Ambulance Service into smaller organisations as a result of the poor performance of the NHS trust, which covers six counties.

North-West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham told the House of Commons yesterday that the time had come to break up the service, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, after it had lurched from crisis to crisis.

However, health minister Dan Poulter acknowledged that ambulance response times should be presented at a more local level, but stopped short of calling for a break-up of region's service in parliament.

Mr Bellingham told the Commons that the organisation had been very badly led and said: 'the time might have come to break up this very large organisation and move it into smaller units that are closer to the communities.'

After the debate he added that the merging the ambulance into a regionwide service, which occurred in 2006, was a 'retrograde step'.

'We do need to look again at why it couldn't be broken down into three different parts. I am going to be working with my other colleagues in the region to see if we can build up support for breaking it down.

The ambulance trust has been criticised by MPs following a damning government review by West Midlands ambulance boss Anthony Marsh, which accused leaders of developing a 'sense of helplessness'. Since the Marsh report, all five non-executive directors on the NHS board have resigned.

Mr Poulter, who is also the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, said the Marsh review did outline and highlight a failure of leadership at the trust, a failure of leadership at the trust board and a disconnect between the front-line staff.

He said: 'We now have a new team at the top and we have to give that team time to respond to that Marsh report, put in place the right measures and I believe there are efficiencies that can be made in back office level at a regional level.'

Norwich South MP Simon Wright said there were signs of improvement at the ambulance trust. However, breaking it up was 'worthy of exploration'. However, there was 'no simple silver bullet solution.'

Norman Lamb, North Norfolk MP and health minister, added that he was 'reluctant' to see a major reorganisation of the ambulance trust and that a top new leader at the service could turnaround performance without the 'turmoil' of splitting the organisation up.

Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney, said the formation of the East of England Ambulance Service was a 'merger too far'. However, its performance needed to be kept under review.

Chloe Smith, Norwich North MP, added that the trust needed be kept under close scrutiny for the sake of patients.