AMBULANCE response times in the Hunter are at their worst level in four years, but the NSW Ambulance Service defended claims they would continue to worsen and put lives at risk.
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NSW Health website figures show ambulance response times are at a four-year high and remained at more than 10 minutes throughout the 2008-09 financial year.
Opposition Health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said the figures were unacceptable.
"The first minutes in any emergency are vital, and if response times continue to lengthen, then it's a case of lives being put in danger," she said.
Ambulance Service media manager John Wilson defended the service and said 50 per cent of the most urgent cases were reached in 10.27 minutes across NSW.
In addition, there had been a 6.7 per cent increase in demand in the past two years. There were more than 1,119,000 ambulance responses to emergency and non-emergency incidents in NSW during 2008-09.
Mr Wilson said the service was working to benefit response time performance and improve services.
These included a new integrated computer dispatch system to improve the ability to anticipate and manage demand for resources and improve the capacity to respond to major incidents.
The extended care paramedic program had reduced the number of patients who needed to go to hospital emergency departments.
"This program provides ambulance paramedics with the additional training and support they need to assess patients who don't require emergency treatment and to identify and initiate referral advice for general practitioners and other community-based health care providers," Mr Wilson said.
Reforms included redirecting non-emergency patients to other forms of transport and reducing the number of unnecessary transports to hospital.
