AMBULANCE chiefs have denied claims they are fiddling the figures to meet Government "999" response times.

They have reacted angrily to accusations that lives in Bolton are being put at risk by the massaging of figures.

And they said local paramedics will soon start to record survival rates of patients -- especially those suffering heart attacks -- to prove that faster response times are saving lives.

The Greater Manchester Ambulance Service (GMAS) was responding to claims in the magazine Health Which? that paramedics are using a "magic pen" to make sure emergency vehicles hit the Government target of reaching their patients in eight minutes.

The service says it has met the Government target of 75 per cent of all ambulances hitting the response time since last September.

Director of human resources John Williams said: "We would not agree with the suggestion that our good response times means we are fiddling the figures.

"But we agree that now is the time to put more emphasis on survival rates.

"We will be bringing in a system where we will be recording when a cardiac patient returns to a normal breathing pattern. This means we can measure certain outcomes of patients regarding heart attacks."

Health Which? has criticised Britain's ambulance services, claiming there is too much focus on league tables rather than survival rates.

Mr Williams agreed there were regional variations in treatment of patients and called for a system where survival figures are used to judge ambulance service trusts.

Independent inspectors from the Commission for Health Improvement are expected to unveil their report on the Greater Manchester service in the next few weeks. It will detail survival rates as well as looking at management performance.

Mr Williams said: "We have managed to turn around our ambulance response times because of extra investment. We have not had to reduce our service. There have been no cutbacks in other areas to reach these targets.

"Unfortunately, Manchester has the second highest cardiac arrest rate in the country, and we are working hard to meet the Government's national service framework.

"Our rapid response vehicles have helped a lot, but we agree that data needs to be evaluated to monitor patient progress."

We believe it is very unfair to say we a placing too much emphasis on the Government targets."

We don't see it like that."