THE ambulance service which serves Bury has admitted to coming under increasing pressure in the last year.

North West Ambulance is among the ten NHS providers finding it increasingly difficult to cope with rising demand for urgent and emergency services.

A report by the National Audit Office found that between 2009-10 and 2015-16, the number of ambulance calls and NHS 111 transfers increased from 7.9 million to 10.7 million but funding had not matched the raising demand.

The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), of which the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) chief executive, Derek Cartwright is a member, welcomed the report.

An NWAS spokesperson said: “The report highlights challenges and pressures faced nationally which echo the challenges we are managing and responding to locally.

“We play a vital role in the delivery of urgent and emergency care to patients across the region.

“To ensure that we provide a safe, quality service we need to be resourced appropriately, this includes having the right staffing and skill levels, vehicles, equipment and finances and we are working closely with our Commissioners to achieve this.”

The report highlighted growing demand from the increasing numbers of elderly patients with multiple conditions and number of alcohol and mental health-driven issues, the availability of primary care services in the community and how patients were seeking help.

In 2015-16, around 500,000 ambulance hours were lost due to turnaround at accident and emergency departments taking more than 30 minutes, which equates to 41,000 12-hour ambulance shifts.

In addition, most ambulance trusts are struggling to recruit and retain the staff they need, with NWAS turnover rate increasing from 4.7 per cent to 9.6 per cent between 2011-12 and 2015-16.

However, AACE also sounded a note of caution regarding the report’s recommendation that there should be a single national standard operating framework for all NHS ambulance trusts.

It argued that it would be difficult to implement due to regional variations in the local health economy.