EMERGENCY ambulance response times in Torfaen deteriorated in October slipping below Wales's target and making it the second worst in Wales.

In Torfaen, performance was down 12.9 per cent in October, with only 54.7 per cent of ambulances arriving within eight minutes.

The Welsh Assembly Government's all-Wales target is for at least 65 per cent of Category A, immediately life-threatening calls, to arrive within eight minutes.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Minister, Veronica German AM, has expressed the need for varying ambulance response times across Wales to be addressed.

Ms German, Assembly Member for South Wales East, commented: "Over the course of the year, we generally saw improvement of emergency responses in our area. Nonetheless, I am concerned about this dip in response times in Torfaen.

"These new figures must not detract from the brilliant work that the NHS staff do. This is not just an issue for the ambulance service, it is a problem that faces the NHS as a whole.

"The Labour-Plaid Government urgently needs to address these problems and find out what the underline causes are."

The arrival of exceptionally cold weather, toward the end of November is being blamed by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust for the poor figures.

November included the beginning of the cold snap and the ambulance trust reported dealing with several hundreds of calls in the final few days of the month. Crews also had to cope with problems with access to patients, and with reduced driving speeds.

Ambulance response times in Wales have improved considerably during the past 18 months as a whole, however - but December was extremely challenging according to the Trust, and details of how the service coped will be published next month.