London Ambulance Service trust has recorded a dramatic rise in response times, according to papers due to be discussed at a board meeting this week. LAS has failed to meet Patient's Charter performance standards, which say crews should reach 50 per cent of emergency calls within eight minutes and 95 per cent within 14 minutes. Crews reached just 39 per cent of cases within eight minutes last year, down from 51 per cent the year before. The proportion of calls responded to within 14 minutes dropped from 93 per cent to 87 per cent. Pressure group London Health Emergency said performance levels were 'dangerously low' but the trust said it had 'responded to almost 100 extra 999 calls a day' compared with 1997-8.