Ambulance response times in Wales have fallen to a record low in December with less than 40 per cent of red call incidents being reached in the target time.

The figures come on the day that the Welsh Ambulance Service is striking and in the same week that the Royal College of Nursing announced new dates for striking in February.

In December, just 60.5 per cent of red ambulance calls - those deemed most life-threatening - were reached within target times. This figure is the highest on record and is higher than previous numbers in December 2021 and 2020, the latter of which was at the height of the pandemic.

The target of 65 per cent of red-calls reaching their patient within eight minutes has not been reached now since July 2020.

Figures have also shown that 78 per cent of amber calls, which include heart attacks and strokes, took over an hour to arrive, with only 13 per cent arriving within 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, over a third (37 per cent) of patients had to wait over the four-hour target to be seen in A&E last month – the worst A&E wait in Wales on record.

Over 12,000 people across Wales spent over 12 hours in A&E in December, with 18,888 spending over 8 hours, far in excess of the target time of 4 hours.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader and Mid and West Wales MS Jane Dodds said: "Increased excess deaths, thousands on waiting lists and hours until an ambulance arrives, this is a horror show that the Welsh Labour Government has failed to get a hold of. People will be petrified when they or their loved ones fall ill.

“The Welsh NHS isn't just at breaking point - it’s splitting at its very seams.

“We cannot continue to ignore the elephant in the room which is social care. Labour and Plaid Cymru promised social care reform in their Co-operation Deal, yet so far nothing meaningful has been announced. Until the Welsh Government takes the social care crisis seriously, our emergency departments will continue to struggle as they cannot discharge patients and ambulances sit queuing outside hospitals instead of helping more people."

Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: “These are another dire set of figures that only serve to highlight the daily suffering in the Labour-run NHS in Wales where patient safety is at risk and staff morale is utterly broken.

“How can anyone have any confidence in the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay to resolve the issues facing the NHS like access to GPs and dentists and solving strikes when both emergency and elective care on their watch is crumbling?

“I know this is a difficult situation across many nations, but we must remember, that on Labour’s watch, Wales has been left in a worse position – we’ve just recorded the worst A&E and ambulance response times on record and we have Britain’s longest waiting list.

“Labour need to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records.”