Response time targets

Call prioritisation

For a number of years, each time we received a 999 call, it was prioritised into one of three categories, depending on the information provided by the caller:

Category A (immediately life-threatening)
Category B (serious)
Category C (neither serious or life-threatening)

Following the removal of the Category B response time target from the start of the 2011/12 year, from April 2011 we will now be handling all calls as either Category A or Category C.

For the first time this year, we will also be reporting on our performance against the national set of 11 clinical quality indicators.

You can find out more about call categorisation in the Calling 999 section.

Response times (how quickly a response reaches the patient, measured from the time the 999 call is connected to the Emegency Dispatch Centre) are set nationally and apply to all ambulance services in England and Wales:

Indicator	National target
Category A - life-threatening conditions where speed of response may be critical in saving life or improving the outcome for the patient , for example - heart attack, trauma, serious bleeding	75 per cent of all category A patients must be reached in 8 minutes 95 per cent of all category A patients must be reached within 19 minutes
Category C - conditions where the patient has been assessed as not have immediately life threatening condition but does require an assessment by an ambulance clinician or transport to hospital.	Agreed locally - the patient should receive an a emergency response in 30 or 60 minutes depending on the clinical need.
Hear & Treat – conditions assessed as not requiring an ambulance service response, but could more appropriately be assessed or treated by an alternative healthcare provider . This may include advice from our own paramedic or nurses in the control room, referral to a GP or out of hours doctor, or make own way to a suitable health care facility.	Agreed locally - where an ambulance service clinician provides advice, a call back should be made within two hours of the orginal 999 call depending on clinical requirement.

Indicator

National target

Category A - life-threatening conditions where speed of response may be critical in saving life or improving the outcome for the patient , for example - heart attack, trauma, serious bleeding

75 per cent of all category A patients must be reached in 8 minutes

95 per cent of all category A patients must be reached within 19 minutes

Category C - conditions where the patient has been assessed as not have immediately life threatening condition but does require an assessment by an ambulance clinician or transport to hospital.

Agreed locally - the patient should receive an a emergency response in 30 or 60 minutes depending on the clinical need.

Hear & Treat – conditions assessed as not requiring an ambulance service response, but could more appropriately be assessed or treated by an alternative healthcare provider . This may include advice from our own paramedic or nurses in the control room, referral to a GP or out of hours doctor, or make own way to a suitable health care facility.

Agreed locally - where an ambulance service clinician provides advice, a call back should be made within two hours of the orginal 999 call depending on clinical requirement.

Our performance

During 2010/11 we:

reached 76.02% of Category A patients within 8 minutes
reached 97.68% of Category A patients within 19 minutes
reached 94.29% of Category B patients within 19 minutes

Robust plans have been put in place to ensure we improve our performance, with actions including:

a continuous review of all operational rotas to ensure that they best meet demand
the recruitment of 24 new front line staff to meet levels of activity which were greater than forecast
the development of response posts to support the movement and tasking of frontline crews
working with all Primary Care Trusts and acute trusts to improve hospital handover systems

Significant improvement has been made since the publication of the above figures, although the Trust Board and Executive team continue to rigorously monitor how we are performing against all of the standards.