CRITICAL ambulance response times are failing to hit target levels in parts of North Yorkshire.

It has been taking crews about 12 minutes to answer life-threatening calls in Hambleton and Richmondshire - well short of the Government target figure of eight minutes.

And this is about a minute more than response times for the same period last year.

The figures were met with concern at a meeting of Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust's board on Tuesday.

Strategy and commissioning director Simon Kirk said: "This is a disappointing performance and that is putting it diplomatically."

There were calls for the chief executive of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service to talk to board members about the situation and questions asked as to why there was no representative at the meeting.

PCT chief executive Chris Long said plans were already in the pipeline to restructure Tenyas' contract with the care trusts it serves. He said the organisation had been through a time of turmoil, adding: "The crews work hard and do a great job."

The board heard that in January, 54.5pc of category A calls in Hambleton and Richmondshire hit the eight-minute response time. The Government has set a target of 75pc. In the year so far, this figure is 58.9pc. In North Yorkshire as a whole, the figures are 63.8pc and 66.4pc. For the overall Tenyas trust area, the figures are 72.7pc and 73.5pc.

Mr Kirk said Tenyas hoped to achieve the 75pc target this year and that performance for North Yorkshire had improved marginally in January. In the whole patch, response times had risen to 77.2pc, but in Hambleton and Richmondshire they had fallen.

Mr Long said a forum had been formed to look at commissioning arrangements for Tenyas.

"There are significant challenges," he said. "Tenyas got no stars in league tables last year and so was entitled to help."

There is a huge cost differential between rural and urban areas covered by Tenyas. The cost of a category A call-out in Teesside is £102; it is £142 in Humberside and £164 in North Yorkshire. Mr Long said: "That is not a criticism of the service itself. We have to develop alternative responses."

He said these could include changes such as fire service vehicles attending calls.

But non-executive director David Smith said: "We have heard this so many times. That things will get better, but they rarely do."

He said Tenyas chief executive Jane Barnes should be asked to update members. Mr Long said Ms Barnes was due to speak to the board in the autumn. He said more staff had been taken on to reduce overtime, but that there was the same number of vehicles. Tenyas was working on a scheme to give PCTs their own local outline of planned improved performance during 2004-5 and Hambleton and Richmondshire's was being negotiated.

Also, training to allow two paramedics to become extended care practitioners was being funded and it was hoped the community paramedic at Leyburn and three of the Richmond paramedics would eventually be trained to be ECPs.

But the target of responding to 75pc of category A calls within eight minutes would be top priority.

A Tenyas spokesman confirmed a representative had been invited to the meeting but prior engagements had prevented anyone attending.

She said plans were being made involving a community paramedic in Leyburn