Health Minister Chris Fearne spoke about a new medical service for serious incidents today, and mentioned that is has been in operation since May.

The new service is called the Emergency Physician Response Unit.

Two cars have been given to doctors and will be available for use 24/7, which they will be able to use in order to reach an area where a major incident has occurred and offer aide to those hurt directly on site.

Since the service came into operation, the unit has been used on 19 occasions, with 92 people having been involved in these incidents.

Minister Fearne also said that over the past months, a considerable improvement was noted in the waiting times at the emergency wards. 79% of patients throughout June, he said, were aided in less than four hours from the time they arrived at the emergency ward, while 84% of patients who entered hospital were treated in under 6 hours.