THE lack of GPs in north Essex is leading to an increase in ambulance waiting times, an MP has claimed.

As Prime Minister Theresa May said GPs had to do more to ease the burden on the NHS, Clacton MP Douglas Carswell said the Government should do more to help the NHS.

He questioned the Government over whether the ambulance service can improve its response to increased demand at certain times.

Mr Carswell asked Philip Dunne, Minister of State at the Department of Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the East of England Ambulance Service improves its response to fluctuations in seasonal demand.

Mr Dunne said additional funding has been put in place as well as an action plan.

He said: “NHS Improvement has been working with East of England Ambulance Service to ensure its winter plans are robust with the appropriate level of resource necessary to provide a safe service and cope with the increase in demand.

“That includes the use of private ambulance services as appropriate.

“It has also worked alongside NHS England to ensure additional funding has been made available from commissioners as part of a remedial action plan to secure additional capacity to cope with the increased demand.”

Mr Carswell hit back at the Government for failing to get to grips with the shortage of GPs in the area.

“Judging from my postbag this problem is getting more acute,” he said.

“I suspect the shortage of GPs means more pressure on A&E which is dragging down ambulance response times.

“I just don’t think ministers really understand the scale of the problem.

“I think there could be improvements to the ambulance service but fundamentally the problem is people start accessing primary care at A&E and that creates a bottleneck.

“However efficient the ambulance service might be, if you’ve got that bottleneck then patients can’t be discharged and the system gets clogged up.”

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service Trust said the service has faced huge demand.

He said: “Demand on the trust over the Christmas and new year period exceeded all expectations.

“In one 24 hour period we received over 4,000 calls, a new record for the trust. This was compounded with increases in patient handover delays at hospitals.”

“Despite these pressures, and because of the plans we have put in place, we continue to get to more Red 1 - the most time critical patients - patients within eight minutes and have seen sustained improvements in our response times.

“In response, the trust has deployed an increasing volume of private ambulance provider resources.”