New Welsh Ambulance Service response system to put patients’ health needs first

Changes to the way the Welsh Ambulance Service responds to emergency calls put patients’ health needs first, Deputy Health Minister Vaughan Gething today said.

Speaking in the National Assembly for Wales, the Deputy Minister said the changes will help ensure all sick and injured patients receive the right care, at the right time and in the right place.

In July, the Welsh Government announced that the Welsh Ambulance Service will pilot a new clinical response model, which includes new clinical indicators, for 12 months, starting in October.

The changes are being made in response to evidence from leading ambulance clinicians and a clinical review of the way the timeliness and quality of the emergency ambulance service in Wales is measured. This will place the focus on clinical care rather than a single blunt eight-minute response time target, which is more than 40 years old.

The Deputy Minister said the changes will help demonstrate to the people of Wales the level of care they can expect to receive when they have an emergency medical problem and, for the first time, they will be in a position to hold the ambulance service to account for the care it provides and not the speed at which ambulance crews can drive to a scene.

Mr Gething said:

“By piloting this new way of working we will be putting people’s clinical needs and their care first. It will help us deliver a high-performing and quality ambulance service for the people of Wales.

“The new clinical response model will prioritise the most critically-ill patients – those who will die unless they receive a clinical intervention in minutes. They will receive the fastest response possible from all available resources in order to save their lives.

“These 999 calls, where someone’s life is at risk, will be known as red and they will continue to be measured against the current eight-minute target.

“We will measure more than we ever have before and we will publish these measures in an easily understandable, accessible and transparent way on a regular basis.”

The announcement of the pilot has been widely supported by frontline clinicians, senior emergency care doctors, professional colleges, community health councils, health charities and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.

NHS Wales is also undertaking pioneering work to become the first national service in the UK to routinely collect information about patients which will give a complete picture of what happened to the patient between the initial call for help to WAST, through their time in the Emergency Department and hospital and subsequently their return home. The Welsh Ambulance Service has started to use digipens to support this collection following a £1.1m investment by the Welsh Government.