Emergency call response times reached 11 minutes, Ms Jones said

Helen Jones, MP for Warrington North, accused Mersey Regional Ambulance Service - which covers Merseyside and Cheshire - of a catalogue of failures in a speech to the House of Commons.

She said delays in answering 999 calls during the first weekend of November 2003 took as long as 11 minutes.

She blamed staff shortages and low morale and laid the responsibility at the door of the trust's chief executive Janet Davies.

In response, the Health Minister Rosie Winterton said work was continuing to ensure the service was run as well as possible.

What we have to remember is there are patients on the receiving end of these procedures, patients whose safety ought to be the prime concern Helen Jones, MP for Warrington North

Ms Jones told the Commons: "I suggest that what we are seeing here is a result of a particular management style and I would suggest particularly the management style of the current chief executive who I think has shown herself unable to accept any form of collegiality or to respond to criticism.

"Call stacking was introduced in the control room... and the way in which it was introduced led to the manager sending an e-mail to the director of performance saying it was unsafe as there were no written protocols in place.

"Now instead of this being treated as the whistle blowing email it clearly was it was reported to the chief executive who promptly called in that manager and moved him from his post.

"What are we to make of a trust which deals with concerns about patient safety in such a cavalier fashion?

"What we have to remember is there are patients on the receiving end of these procedures, patients whose safety ought to be the prime concern."

Ambulances turned away

But Ms Winterton said the trust had been reorganised within the last financial year to provide better management.

And she admitted there had been problems on 1 and 2 November when ambulances had been turned away from Warrington Hospital.

She said: "The temporary diversion of ambulances away from Warrington Hospital in turn undoubtedly put pressure on other hospitals and the ambulance service.

"And whilst the impact on other hospitals was relatively minor the effect on the ambulance service was much more obvious.