NEW figures have revealed a large gap between ambulance response times in rural and urban areas of County Durham.

Ambulance crews are reaching eight out of ten call-outs to potentially life-threatening incidents in Darlington within eight minutes.

But in rural Sedgefield, fewer than six in ten crews reach their destinations on time.

New figures published by County Durham and Darlington Health Authority highlight the difference between call-out times in Darlington and more rural areas such as Weardale, Teesdale and Easington.

But North-East Ambulance Service bosses say average response times for County Durham and Darlington have never been so good and it is impossible to provide the same cover in urban and rural areas.

The new figures for the quarter ending September 30 were due to be discussed by members of County Durham and Darlington Health Authority yesterday.

Crews reached 80.1 per cent of category A (life-threatening incident) calls within eight minutes, in line with the Government target of 75 per cent.

But in Sedgefield that figure falls to 55.9 per cent and in Weardale and Teesdale, crews reach 58.8 per cent in time and in Easington 58.2 per cent.

Ambulances reach 63.6 per cent of category A calls within eight minutes in Durham and Chester-le-Street and 64.2 per cent in Derwentside.

Simon Featherstone, chief executive of the North-East Ambulance Service, said: "Rather than paint a gloomy picture we need to be really positive. The population of County Durham and Darlington have never had it this good. Never in their entire history have they had an ambulance service delivering this kind of performance."

A year ago ambulances were reaching category A calls in less than 40 per cent of cases.

Last month that figure was up to 71.6 per cent for the entire health authority area.

Latest figures show an even higher rating of 73.2 per cent this month.

"I think our staff should take a huge amount of credit," said Mr Featherstone.

Shift patterns and deployment practices had changed and more rapid response motor bikes and cars had been introduced, he added.

The Government acknowledged the difficulty of working in rural areas by allowing ambulance services to use average response rates across a district, he said.

"You can't afford to put an ambulance behind every tree in rural areas. NHS resources would far better be spent on hip joints or heart surgery," he said.