Ambo service response times have worsened

CREWS TAKE AN AVERAGE OF 8 MINS 45 SECS TO REACH LIFE-THREATENING CALLS

THE ambulance service covering Staffordshire has seen its times for responding to calls increase in the last month – making them far longer than NHS targets.

West Midlands Ambulance Service, which provides 999 services in Burton, took an average of eight minutes 45 seconds to respond to category one calls – those for life-threatening injuries – across the region in October.

That is up from eight minutes 20 seconds in September, and far 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 one hour eight minutes, well short of the 18-minute target. That is up from 45 minutes the month before.

Category three calls, meanwhile, were dealt with in an average of four hours 54 minutes, compared to a target of two hours, and category four calls were responded to within an average of five hours 20 minutes, compared to a target of three hours.

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service explained that October was the second worst month for hospital handover delays, with the crews losing 39,795 hours of time outside A&E departments. Only July was worse at 43,579.

The spokesman said: “The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.

“Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call.

“We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives.”

Response times vary across England. East of England Ambulance Service has the longest response time for category one calls at an average of 11 minutes and 12 seconds, and also the longest for category two at 26 minutes and 54 seconds.

North East Ambulance Service had the shortest response time for category one calls at eight minutes nine seconds, while South East Coast Ambulance Service had the shortest response time for category two calls at 36 minutes 54 seconds.