The boss of Yorkshire Ambulance Service is appear before health chiefs in Bradford to explain why ambulance response times are failing to meet national standards.

Despite huge injections of cash over the past year, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has been unable to meet a target of reaching 75 per cent of all category A calls within eight minutes.

The bad weather in early February had a significant impact on performance, but even before this response times were poor.

This continued under-performance has resulted in a ‘red’ rating for ambulance response times for the year, putting at risk the ‘fair’ rating local health bosses expect to receive for the quality of local health service in the Annual Health Check.

Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust takes a lead role in commissioning ambulance services in the region on behalf of all primary care trusts, and at the end of last year non-executive director Chris Turner called for a representative of Yorkshire Ambulance Service to attend a public board meeting to discuss response times.

Mr Turner said: “We have a lead commissioning role and we have a duty to ourselves and other PCTs to do something.”

On Tuesday the chief executive of YAS Martyn Pritchard will attend a board meeting of the Trust in its headquarters, Douglas Mill, to discuss the issue with board members.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service serves a population of five million people across Yorkshire and last year handled more than 544,204 emergency calls and its Patient Transport Service conveyed 1.8 million people.

Latest performance ratings also show winter pressures had an impact on A&E performance in the district, with weekly average performance at both hospitals in Bradford and Airedale, falling just below the national standards of treating 98 per cent patients within four hours.