Ambulance response times improve in June

Ambulance response times improved in June, with 77.1% of all emergency responses to ‘category red’ calls arriving within 8 minutes, up from 75.5% in May.

Targets were scrapped by the Welsh Government for all but the most life-threatening calls, in moves described by Welsh Conservatives at the time as “moving the goalposts”. There were concerns that a new system for measuring ambulance performance could artificially inflate results.

Response times varied across Wales:

However, in recent months there have been signs of improvement which are welcomed today by Angel Burns AM, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health.

She said:

“I am pleased to see that there has been some improvement compared to last month, but it’s important to remember that the long term issues with ambulance services haven’t just disappeared overnight.

“It’s of particular concern to see significant variation in performance across Wales, with Cardiff & Vale UHB responding to 82.6% of emergency calls within 8 minutes, but Hywel Dda managing to achieve a rate of just 68%.

“NHS staff and paramedics work incredibly hard and do an extremely difficult job in tough circumstances.

“These response times are a tribute to their hard work and dedication and we must hope that the Ambulance service is able to continue to build on these improvements.”