Ambulance wait times improve

South Western Ambulance Service waiting times are still short of NHS targets, despite having fallen over the past month.

Ambulances took an average of 11 minutes and 27 seconds to respond to category one calls – those for life-threatening conditions – in August. It was the longest response time of any ambulance service in England

That was down from 11 minutes and 48 seconds in July. However, it is longer than the seven-minute target set by the NHS.

Category two calls, which cover things like strokes, were responded to in an average of 59 minutes and 45 seconds, well short of the 18-minute target. It is, however, an improvement on July’s response time of one hour and 15 minutes.

Category three calls were dealt with in an average of two hours, nine minutes, compared to a target of two hours, and category four calls were responded to within an average of six hours and 54 minutes. The target is three hours.

In England as a whole, category one calls were responded to in an average of nine minutes and eight seconds – an improvement of 27 seconds – and category two calls in an average of 42 minutes and 44 seconds, down from 59 minutes and seven seconds in July.

Category three calls were responded to in an average of two hours 16 minutes, down from three hours 17 minutes, while category four calls were responded to in an average of two hours 56 minutes, down from four hours two minutes.