Stories about a Norfolk pensioner's six hour wait for an ambulance and concerns about increased pressure on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have highlighted further cracks in the NHS. But how worried should we be? Health correspondent ADAM GRETTON reports.

It is a issue that campaigners, MPs, regulators, and ambulance bosses had hoped to see the end of.

However, the story of former nurse Barbara Hedley, 90, who had to wait more than six hours for an ambulance after fracturing her pelvis, demonstrates that long ambulance delays are not yet a thing of the past.

Two years ago, the EDP launched Ambulance Watch to highlight the unacceptable service some patients in rural Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire were receiving from the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST).

Front-line staff reported being stretched to the limit after months of recruitment freezes and there were tragic stories about patients coming to serious harm or dying because of ambulance delays.

The new management of the region's under-performing ambulance service has been quick to identify the problems facing the organisation and has put a series of measures in place to turn around its fortunes.

EEAST's board of directors were told last week that more than 370 student paramedics have been offered placements and 75 emergency care assistants have signed up to become technicians this year. Another 57 emergency technicians have joined student paramedic courses and 29 graduate paramedics have been hired at the ambulance trust in 2014.

However, despite a major recruitment drive, the trust is still a long way off having the resources it needs to become one of the best performing ambulance services in the country.

Mrs Hedley was crying in pain for more than six hours after falling at her Beeston Regis home, near Sheringham, last month.

Her story is a very sharp reminder to officials at EEAST that more work needs to be done to address the failings of the service, which covers six counties in the East of England.

However, Alex Stewart, chief executive of Healthwatch Norfolk, said there was a feeling amongst local patients that EEAST was on the right track. A survey of more than 700 Norfolk patients about the ambulance service is set to be published later this month after a consultation came to an end last week.

Mr Stewart said: 'Yes there has been a marked improvement, but there is always room for improvement.

'In Norwich it is much quicker to get an ambulance than when you are stuck on the North Norfolk coast. Six hours is an unacceptable time to wait. However, these stories are becoming more exceptional.'

'We had a really good response to our survey and there will be some improvements that will be recommended that we hope they will take forward,' he said.

Ambulance chiefs have warned that the transformation of EEAST will take time as it takes more than two years for a student paramedic to become fully qualified. They have also warned that the NHS trust will need to replicate this year's recruitment drive in 2015/16.

Meanwhile, the organisation continues to miss key response targets. In fact, a move to reduce the over-reliance on rapid response cars has led to a deterioration of response times.

In August 2014, 69.3pc of the most urgent 999 calls received a response in eight minutes. In August 2013 that figure was 74.52pc.

Officials from EEAST added that the number of emergency calls in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire have gone up by 4 to 5pc and delays at hospital A&E departments remain an issue.

Denise Burke, of the Act on Ambulances campaign and prospective parliamentary candidate for north Norfolk, said more needed to be done with the winter months looming.

'This shocking wait for an ambulance shows just how far the ambulance service still needs to go for residents to regain trust in the service. We live in a district with an ageing population and elderly residents need the confidence that they are going to get treated quickly. Poor ambulance response times only adds to the health problems stacking up here. We have a crisis in A&E and the longest waits for a GP in the county.'

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