National ambulance data (to end May 2022)

Summary

Report from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives on national ambulance data.

Content

Key points

• May’s data show that pressure on the system remains steady. Despite sustained volume of the most serious incidents, there were improvements in call answering and response times – although the latter continue to exceed national standards by some margin. Patient handover delays remain very high, with many thousands of patients waiting three hours or more, increasing their risk of harm and resulting in a significant impact on resources.
• The volume of 999 calls dropped for the second consecutive month, but remain well above the series average. 999 calls answered in the most recent 12 months exceeds the previous period by more than 2 million.
• Call answer time decreased for the second month since March but remains more than twice that seen the same time last year. Call answer delays of 2 minutes or more spiked at the end of May.
• Volume of Category 1 and 2 incidents remain significantly higher the same month last year. Annualised data show much higher volumes for the most recent 12 months, compared with the previous period. C1 continues to account for more than 10% of all incidents (compared with 7% in 2020). Meanwhile C4 incidents continue to shrink, accounting for 0.7% of incidents in May 2022 compared with 2.6% in May 2019. Response times for all incidents continue to exceed national standards, but in every category the time taken to respond decreased in May 2022. Nonetheless, mean response times have now exceeded the national standard for over 12 months for C1 incidents, and nearly 2 years for C2 incidents.
• Transport to Emergency Departments increased in May 2022. However, volume remained below the series average with the year-on-year trend showing a steady decrease. Conversely, Hear and Treat incidents continue to increase steadily.
• Despite a second month of contraction, the number of longer patient handover delays remain some of the highest seen to date. The longest delay across the month was just under 24 hours, while 387 patient handovers took 10 hours or longer