Revealed: The WORST area in England to call an ambulance...where you'll be waiting over an hour for paramedics

England's worst areas for ambulance delays were today exposed in MailOnline's dossier of data.

The worrying statistics reveal a stark divide between NHS trusts across the country, with heart attack and stroke victims in the South West forced to wait far longer than the national average.

Analysis of latest NHS data found one in 10 patients in March were also waiting over an hour and 16 minutes for paramedics to arrive at heart emergencies.

Nationally, the figure stood at 28 minutes and 34 seconds - within the health service's target of 30 minutes.

Ambulances in the South West also took longer than services in other areas to deal with the most life-threatening emergency calls, such as when a patient's heart has stopped.

Patients were left waiting 9 minutes on average for these 'category one' calls. The target is 7 minutes.

An older population, spread more remotely, has been blamed as part of the reason why the South West falls behind, with NHS England also previously citing staff recruitment and illness as factors.

According to the monthly figures, ambulance response times nationally were improved on both the previous month and year.

For the most life-threatening category one ambulance calls, the average response time in England was 7 minutes and 52 seconds, the fastest time since May 2021.

This is despite the service facing the busiest March ever recorded for ambulance incidents — 772,322 compared to 765,396 in March 2021.

By area, the South West was followed by the East Midlands and East of England, who logged figures of 8 minutes and 37 seconds and 8 minutes and 19 seconds on average, respectively.

One in 10 patients in the South West were left waiting 16 minutes and 51 seconds.

In the East Midlands one in 10 waited 14 minutes and 57 seconds. In the East of England, this stood at 15 minutes and 18 seconds.

The North East of England came at the other end of the scale, with a category one average response time of 6 minutes and 18 seconds — under the seven minute target.

For category two ambulances, attending heart attack and strokes, the average response time in England was 28 minutes 34 seconds — almost 3 minutes quicker than the previous month and over 5 minutes quicker than the same month last year.

Patients in the North East faced the shortage average waiting times at 20 minutes and 54 seconds.

By comparison, the South West and East Midlands logged figures of 37 minutes and 2 seconds and 34 minutes and 28 seconds, respectively.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS National Medical Director said: 'Despite services facing the busiest March ever in A&E and for ambulance incidents, staff continue to bring down waits for urgent and emergency care.

'But we know there is much more to do to reduce waits and delays across all NHS services.'

Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, also said: 'A&Es and ambulances continued to see very high demand in March, with emergency departments seeing their second highest level of attendances on record.

'Despite this, staff managed to treat three-quarters of A&E patients within the four-hour target and improve ambulance response times.

'But it is clear that while winter is over there is no end in sight to rising demand for NHS care.'

Sluggish response times are fueled by a catalogue of factors, although handover delays are one of the biggest issues.

Under NHS targets, ambulance crews arriving into A&E are meant to complete all patient handovers within 15 minutes.

Hundreds of handover delays of up to half an hour or longer, however, are being recorded across almost every trust in England still.

Delays can occur due to A&E units being overwhelmed by a lot of ambulances at once, as well as a lack of space inside hospitals, partly down to bed-blockers.

In March, the South West reported the worst handover time with patients waiting an average of 52 minutes and 13 seconds to get out of ambulances and into A&E.

This was followed by the West Midlands with an average time of 51 minutes and 5 seconds logged.

By comparison, the figure stood at 18 minutes and 57 seconds in the North East.