Ambulance Response Times in Wrexham Continue as The Highest in Wales

Ambulance response times in Wrexham have continued to exceed national targets and once again achieve the highest response rate in Wales.

In monthly figures released by the Welsh Government,76% of Category A (immediately life-threatening calls) in Wrexham were attended within the eight minute target. Wrexham’s figures fell slightly short of the 80.3% of Category A calls which were attended in June – however the figures achieved by ambulance staff in Wrexham this month continue to be the highest in Wales.

Throughout July ambulance services in Wrexham were called to a total of 564 Category A calls – which is up on the 550 which were received throughout June.

Of the 564 calls, 550 of the Category A calls had a first response team at the seen and 418 were attended within the eight minute target.

North Wales continues to have some of the fastest ambulance response times in Wales, with Conwy attending 71.1% of Category A calls within eight minutes and Denbighshire attending a total of 69.2% of emergency calls within the target time.

Across Wales figures for July show that there were a total of 36,907 emergency calls made to the Welsh Ambulance Service throughout the month. Of these calls, 13,462 were Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls which was up 2.0% on June 2015.

Speaking about the release of today’s statistics, Tracy Myhill, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “The improvement in our response times may be marginal, but it’s encouraging when you consider that we took an extra 900 calls in July compared to June. This improvement is no doubt down to the hard work of our staff and the new and innovative projects which are starting to bear fruit, like the handover guidance we agreed with Local Health Boards in February.”

July’s ambulance statistics are amongst some of the last to be recorded by response times, with the Welsh Ambulance Service moving to a pilot ‘traffic light’ system in October 2015.

As part of the new system, those people with an immediate life-threatening condition – such as a cardiac arrest – will continue to receive an immediate response from the Welsh Ambulance Service. All other patients will receive a bespoke clinical response, which is based on their health needs, rather than a generic response based on the 41-year-old time target.

Tracy Myhill added: “You’ll know by now that from October, for a one-year pilot period, we’ll be moving away from time-based targets to look more at the quality of what we do for you once we arrive. Don’t worry – for conditions where time is critical, like a heart attack, we’ll continue to send the nearest available ambulance in the shortest time possible.

“For less serious conditions, we’re going to measure how well we treat you and how often we avert a trip to hospital by referring you to a more appropriate service, like your GP. Our focus always has and always will be to deliver excellent clinical care and improve the overall patient experience.”

The full breakdown of ambulance response times for Wales can be found on the Welsh Government website here.