Wrexham Continues To Exceed Ambulance Response Time Target

Ambulance response times in Wrexham have been shown to be the best performing in Wales, new figures have revealed.

In monthly figures released by the Welsh Government, ambulance response times for Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls in Wrexham, have been shown to be the best in Wales – with crews attending over 76% of  life-threatening calls in under eight minutes.

The response time figures for April exceed the Welsh Ambulance target of responding to 65% of life-threatening 999 calls within the eight minute target.

Throughout April ambulance crews in Wrexham were called to a total of 575 Category A calls, of 566 had a first response team attend the scene. Overall 434 incidents were attended within the eight minute target.

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.

Across Wales response times to Category A 999 calls have continued to improve month on month, with 64.2% of calls in North Wales attended within eight minutes.

Throughout April there were 35,163 emergency calls, 4.5% down on March 2015 and 0.1% down on April 2014. Of these, 13,120 were Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls, 6.9% down on March 2015 and 6.1% down on April 2014. 58.7% of emergency responses to Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls arrived at the scene within 8 minutes – up from 52.9% in March 2015 and from 56.7% in April 2014 – but below the target of 65%.

Tracy Myhill, Chief Executive at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “It’s very encouraging that our response times have improved yet again, and it’s especially good to see that in April more than 71% of the most serious and life-threatening calls – or ‘Red 1’ calls – had a response within eight minutes.

“There’s also an improvement against the overall Category A target, which is reflective of the work we are doing to stabilise the service and system in order to create a foundation from which to improve.

“Our aim is to continue our improvement and remain focused on delivering excellent clinical care to the people that need our help.

“Many of the hospital handover delays have reduced as a result of focused attention of our health board colleagues supported by initiatives we have underway that are beginning to make a difference including our work in Cwm Taf and the clinical desk in our contact centre providing advice and support to patients, crews and partners 24 hours a day.

“I’d also like to thank the people of Wales for the continuous stream of positive feedback we are receiving, thanking crews across Wales. They mean a lot to staff who work so hard and are a credit to us.

“We’d ask the public to continue to support us by using the service appropriately. We still get called far too often to calls that do not need a Welsh Ambulance Service response. You’ll find a wealth of advice and information on the NHS Direct Wales website, where our symptom checkers for things like hay fever, sunburn and stings will tell you what course of action to take.”