Ambulance target met for almost a year

The Welsh Ambulance Service responded to almost 80% of the most life-threatening calls in eight minutes or less in August, meeting the target for the eleventh successive month and achieving the best ambulance performance since the introduction of the clinical response model pilot last October.

78.1% of the most life-threatening calls, known as Red calls, received a response within eight minutes, against a target of 65%.  This is an improvement of 2.8 percentage points on the July response rate of 75.3%.

The standard response time for Red calls was 4 minutes 44 seconds and the Welsh Ambulance Service met the new target in all areas of Wales for the third month in a row.

Almost 70% of all Amber calls, which are serious, but not immediately life-threatening, received a response within 20 minutes.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said:

“Patients with the most life-threatening conditions are continuing to receive a rapid emergency response and I want to thank Welsh Ambulance staff for their dedication and hard work.

“Their efforts are helping to ensure their communities receive a safe and timely service.  The new system which we introduced last October, is working well and prioritising the most urgent calls.”