LIVES are being put at risk because ambulance crews in Cumbria are poorly managed from a new control centre in Lancashire, it has been claimed.

Bosses at the North West Ambulance Service admitted they missed targets on reaching patients within eight minutes of an incident being reported.

But they blamed a recent ten per cent rise in calls in July for the problem.

In June the county’s 999 ambulance control centre was moved from Carlisle to Broughton, near Preston, as part of a shake-up.

And Cumbria crews have claimed that because of a lack of local knowledge at the new HQ, they have sometimes been sent from one side of the county to the other.

Tim Farron, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP, criticised the changes and warned patient care could not be allowed to suffer.

He said: “The simple fact is that patients are not receiving the same care under the new regime.

“The lack of local knowledge among the staff in Broughton has had a big impact on response times and it is not acceptable. Lives are being put at risk.

“In my constituency there are two villages called Staveley and three Grizedales. It is understandable that there would be confusion if call handlers are not dealing with calls from the county all of the time.

“I have been told of appalling experiences from people waiting for hours for an ambulance and of people being taken to Lancaster when they could be treated in Kendal.

“It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if an ambulance takes a patient to Lancaster it is then an extra half an hour away from its next call – and with the reported congestion and resultant slow turnaround times at Lancaster this extra time could be even greater.

“The ambulance service should stop making excuses and start providing the quality of service we deserve.”

Unison union convener Michael Oliver said: “We are sitting down with the trust to see what we can do.”

A North West Ambulance Service spokesman said: “The service has experienced higher than normal levels of activity for this time of year and this understandably has had an impact on our performance levels.

"We remain committed to the highest levels of patient care and service provision.”

The trust said it had put additional resources into Cumbria recently.