Emergency calls are up by 25% over the same period last year

Crews from the East Anglian Ambulance Trust just missed their October target for responding to life-threatening calls within eight minutes.

They managed to reach 72.5% - just below the national target of 75%.

Matthew Ware, from the trust, said a significant rise in the number of emergency calls is to blame for the failure.

He said: "999 calls are going up by such a huge amount that at the moment it's proving extremely difficult to keep to the government targets.

"So far this month we've gone up 25% in emergency calls over last November.

"There is not an ambulance service in the country that could easily cope with a 25% increase in calls."

The trust had warned in September that an increased number of calls could have a "knock-on effect" on response times.

The service handled 13,106 emergency calls in October 2003 - compared with 11,370 calls received over the same period last year.

The Trust provides emergency and non-emergency transport services in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.