Wrexham Ambulance Services Continue to Exceed Response Time Targets

Ambulance services in Wrexham have continued to exceed the national target in responding to immediately life-threatening emergencies. 

In monthly figures released by the Welsh Government, ambulance response times for Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls in Wrexham throughout June were 80.3% – the best response times in Wales recorded throughout the month.

Throughout June ambulance services in Wrexham were called to 550 Category A incidents, which is down slightly on the 586 emergency calls received in May. Of the 550 Category A calls 533 had a first response team attend the scene and 428 of the calls were attended within the eight minute target time.

The monthly figures continue to show the upward trend in response times in Wrexham, who have been among the highest Welsh response times over the past few months. Overall ambulance services across north Wales attended 61.4% within eight minutes, which fell just short of hitting the 65% target.

Throughout Wales there was a total of 36,013 emergency calls in June, which 1.2% down on May 2015 but 1.3% up on June 2014. Of these, 13,199 were Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls, 3.3% down on May 2015 and 6.8% down on June 2014.

Last week the Welsh Government announced they would be dropping the response time target for ambulance services, which will introduce three new categories of calls – red, amber and green – to replace the current system.

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.

The new scheme will be piloted for 12 months from October 2015.