NORTH West Ambulance Service said there were 21 ‘red 1’ calls in Lancashire and Cumbria that were not attended by a paramedic in June, which represented about three per cent of the total.

The calls would have been attended by ambulance technicians instead, who normally provide support to paramedics.

Red 1 calls are the most serious and NWAS aims to send a paramedic to all of them. The figure for May was also 21.

In February, the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that 1,400 red calls in East Lancashire were not attended by a paramedic in the eight months to December 2013, which was about five per cent of the total.

NWAS said the figures were partly due to difficulties in recruiting paramedics.