AMBULANCE chiefs have defended their emergency response times, despite taking nearly 20 minutes to reach a patient who collapsed in the middle of Richmond.

The woman, who was thought to be a diabetic, fell from the pavement on to the road on King Street shortly before 2.30pm yesterday.

Although passers-by dialled 999 it took 19 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

The ambulance that attended was not from the station less than a mile away but from a neighbouring service in County Durham.

"The paramedics told us the delay was because of a mishap in North Yorkshire, but I'm not sure what that meant," said 32-year-old Karen Atkinson who administered first aid at the scene.

"I do find it worrying that it can take a paramedic so long to reach an emergency - especially when there is an ambulance station less than a mile away on Barrack Hill."

The incident follows a report studied by the Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust last week, which indicated the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) had only reached 66.4 per cent of category A calls within eight minutes in North Yorkshire so far this year. This is against a government target of 75 per cent.

Spokesman Nigel Metcalfe said yesterday's incident in Richmond was classified as a category B, which has a target response time of 19 minutes.

"The first call came at 2.28pm when the service was dealing with a heavy workload but an ambulance was dispatched from the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton at 2.30pm." he said. "However, due to the nature of the roads involved, controllers decided to request an ambulance from the neighbouring service as it would take less time to reach the patient - and it was with her at 2.47pm, which is within the national standard."

The woman was taken to Richmond's Friary Hospital for checks and her condition was not thought to be serious.

Mr Metcalfe confirmed Tenyas was introducing a range of initiatives to cut emergency response times.

More ambulances are being dispersed to stand-by points across the county, closer to areas where incidents are more likely to occur.

Police and fire service vehicles now carry equipment so officers can deal with some medical emergencies.

In rural communities, first responders are being trained and equipped to assist patients until expert help arrives.