Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the ambulance service prioritises the severity of patients' symptoms to minimise the time taken for ambulances to reach patients.

There are three ambulance response time standards for immediately life threatening (Category A) calls as follows:

- at least 75% of Category A Red 1 calls to be responded to within eight minutes, from the time the call is connected to the control room. Red 1 calls are the most time critical, covering cardiac arrest patients who are not breathing and do not have a pulse, and other severe conditions such as airway obstruction;

- at least 75% of Category A Red 2 calls to be responded to within eight minutes, from the time that either the chief complaint is identified, the call handler determines a priority response is required, or after 60 seconds has elapsed, whichever is the sooner. Red 2 calls are serious but less immediately time critical, covering conditions such as stroke and fits; and

- at least 95% of all Category A calls (Red 1 and Red 2) to receive a fully equipped ambulance vehicle able to transport the patient in a clinically safe manner within 19 minutes of the request being made.

Lower acuity calls where there is still a need for an ambulance are called “Green calls”. Response times for these are agreed and set locally.

Ambulance services use approved call prioritisation systems to map symptoms against the categories. Call categorisation symptoms are reviewed annually by the Emergency Calls Prioritisation Advisory Group.

The Department continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to monitor and support performance in 2016-17. NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review will transform ambulance services from a service based on a model of transportation to one of clinical assessment and treatment. We expect NHS England will make recommendations in spring 2017.