Welsh Ambulance Service Statement on June 2016’s performance figures
Richard Lee, Director of Operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We are glad to see that the number of red calls to life threatening emergencies that we are reaching within our target time of eight minutes has increased once again. The average response time was five minutes and 1 second.
“Even more pleasing is that in every health board area, we met the target of reaching 65 per cent of patients suffering serious problems, such as cardiac arrests and choking, within this time frame.
“We are constantly endeavouring to provide an equitable and high standard of care across Wales, and have seen particular improvements in Powys where we met the eight minute standard.
“A lot of work has been done in this area to reduce the amount of time local ambulances spend outside Powys, as well as initiatives to recruit more community first responders, increase the number of co-responders with our colleagues at Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service and joint working with St John Cymru-Wales.
“Of course, far from resting on our laurels, our key challenge now is to ensure that all Local Health Board areas continue to achieve the target and to start to focus on improving the quality and timeliness of our response to amber calls.
“We would like to thank all of our colleagues throughout the Trust for helping us to sustain a high level of performance, as well as those members of the public who are assisting us by making better choices regarding which healthcare services they need.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind people that the 999 service should only ever be used for a life-threatening emergency.
“In all other cases please consider alternative services such as your GP, Out of Hours, pharmacies, minor injury units or call NHS Direct Wales on 0845 46 47.”
Notes to Editors: There were 1,516 RED emergency incidents in June.
We reached 77.1% of RED calls within eight minutes, 81.8% within nine minutes and 86% within 10 minutes.
You can view the data in full by visiting Welsh Government’s StatsWales website.
The third set of Ambulance Quality Indicator data has also been published today.
The data – which looks at things like clinical care, appropriate interventions and patient flow – helps people assess our performance clinically in addition to how quickly an ambulance arrives.
You can view the AQIs on the Emergency Ambulance Service Committee’s website.
Keep abreast of news and updates by following the Welsh Ambulance Service on Twitter @WelshAmbulance and on Facebook: Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.
For more information, please call Communications Officer Liam Randall on 01745 532511 or 07841 840 632 or e-mail Liam.Randall@wales.nhs.uk
