Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for emergency ambulance response.
Ambulance performance is measured against six response time standards across four call categories. The category of call reflects the severity of the incident as follows: Category 1: life threatening; Category 2: emergency; Category 3: urgent; Category 4: less urgent.
The following table shows ambulance performance data in September 2021 by category.
Ambulance category | Standard | Current |
1 mean average | 7 minutes | 9:01 minutes |
1 90th centile | 15 minutes | 15:56 minutes |
2 mean average | 18 minutes | 45:30 minutes |
2 90th centile | 40 minutes | 1 hour 38 minutes |
3 90th centile | 2 hours | 6 hours 23 minutes |
4 90th centile | 3 hours | 6 hours 58 minutes |
Trusts are being supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve response times. This includes continuous monitoring and support through the National Ambulance Coordination Centre and the investment of an extra £55 million for ambulance trusts to increase staff numbers ahead of the winter.