Emergency responses: minute-by-minute performance for red calls by Local Health Board and month

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Date

Area code

Measure1

Measure

Area

From 1st April 2019 health service provision for residents of Bridgend local authority moved from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg to Cwm Taf. For more information see the joint statement from Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Boards (see weblinks). The health board names have changed with Cwm Taf University Health Board becoming Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board becoming Swansea Bay University Health Board. A link to the statement from the Minister for Health and Social Services can be found in the weblinks section.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

Red - ER at scene

As part of the continual review of the clinical response model, the Welsh Ambulance Service regularly reviews call handling practices and the categorisation of incidents. An update to call handling practices in summer 2019 appears to have resulted in an increased red incident volume. Further work is being undertaken to understand this change. Therefore, it is not possible to compare red incident volumes in recent months at present. Increases in red incident volumes may also impact on performance due to the additional resources required to attend a red incident.

Red - % within 1 minute

Red - % within 2 minutes

Red - % within 3 minutes

Red - % within 4 minutes

Red - % within 5 minutes

Red - % within 6 minutes

Red - % within 7 minutes

Red - % within 8 minutes

Red - % within 9 minutes

Red - % within 10 minutes

Red - % within 11 minutes

Red - % within 12 minutes

Red - % within 13 minutes

Red - % within 14 minutes

Red - % within 15 minutes

Red - % within 16 minutes

Red - % within 17 minutes

Red - % within 18 minutes

Red - % within 19 minutes

Red - % within 20 minutes

Red - % within 21 minutes

Red - % within 22 minutes

Red - % within 23 minutes

Red - % within 24 minutes

Red - % within 25 minutes

Red - % within 26 minutes

Red - % within 27 minutes

Red - % within 28 minutes

Red - % within 29 minutes

Red - % within 30 minutes

Red - % 30 minutes plus

WALES

16,384

14.6

34.4

51.3

69.6

90.1

110.7

130.4

149.7

167.2

182.7

195.9

208.7

220.0

230.0

239.7

247.4

254.0

260.0

265.1

269.6

273.5

277.1

280.2

282.8

285.2

287.1

288.6

289.9

291.2

292.2

7.8

Betsi Cadwaladr

3,683

10.9

35.8

53.9

73.1

93.2

110.7

129.5

148.1

165.5

180.0

194.3

205.5

215.7

223.9

231.0

238.0

245.0

250.8

256.1

261.4

265.4

269.9

273.4

276.6

279.6

281.8

283.5

285.1

287.2

288.6

11.4

Powys

648

18.0

38.4

66.8

89.9

110.0

121.5

133.1

145.1

151.1

158.1

165.5

171.6

179.7

191.4

195.6

202.1

210.6

218.9

225.8

231.9

236.1

240.4

246.2

249.3

251.6

257.7

259.5

262.6

265.4

268.7

31.3

Hywel Dda

2,088

17.3

45.2

66.9

88.0

111.2

130.0

142.7

154.7

164.5

176.0

185.6

194.3

202.8

213.9

222.1

230.1

238.0

244.6

250.3

255.4

260.1

265.2

269.8

273.1

277.2

279.0

281.7

283.6

284.8

286.9

13.1

Swansea Bay

2,171

14.2

30.5

46.8

62.8

79.4

99.8

121.8

143.9

165.5

182.6

196.7

210.5

223.5

234.5

246.2

256.6

262.5

269.9

274.4

278.7

282.9

285.9

288.3

289.9

291.7

293.3

294.3

295.5

296.6

296.9

3.1

Cwm Taf Morgannwg

2,424

18.8

43.0

61.6

76.4

94.6

112.8

129.7

146.9

161.3

174.5

186.3

201.1

213.6

223.8

235.0

243.0

249.6

255.5

261.5

266.1

271.2

274.7

279.4

283.0

286.4

288.5

290.4

291.5

292.9

293.6

6.4

Aneurin Bevan

3,083

12.9

25.9

39.4

59.7

84.5

110.1

134.6

155.7

175.3

192.4

206.7

220.7

232.6

242.1

253.5

261.3

266.8

272.2

277.7

281.6

284.7

287.4

289.0

290.8

291.9

293.6

294.7

295.4

296.3

296.6

3.4

Cardiff & Vale

2,287

15.6

27.3

37.8

54.1

73.6

99.0

123.3

150.0

174.3

196.0

211.8

228.2

240.9

251.6

262.5

268.8

274.9

279.5

282.8

285.6

288.3

290.4

292.2

293.5

294.5

295.5

296.1

296.6

297.1

297.5

2.5

Metadata

Title

Emergency responses: minute-by-minute performance for red calls by local health board and Wales, by month

Last update

17/04/2025

Next update

22/05/2025

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust

Contact email

stats.healthinfo@gov.wales

Designation

National Statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Local health boards

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

General description

Since April 2014, Local Health Boards have been responsible for providing emergency ambulance services (999 calls) for their local residents; the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) is commissioned to deliver emergency ambulance services on their behalf.

As announced in a statement by the Deputy Minister for Health, a new clinical response model was implemented in Wales from 1 October 2015.

The new model has three new categories of calls – Red, Amber and Green:
• Red - Immediately life-threatening (someone is in imminent danger of death, such as a cardiac arrest). There is a target for 65 per cent of these calls to have a response within 8 minutes.
• Amber- Serious but not immediately life-threatening (patients who will often need treatment to be delivered on the scene, and may then need to be taken to hospital). There will be no time-based target for amber calls; instead a range of clinical outcome indicators will be introduced to measure the quality, safety and timeliness of care being delivered alongside patient experience information, which will be published every quarter.
• Green - Non urgent (can often be managed by other health services) and clinical telephone assessment. There is no official time based target for these calls.

Running calls (operational crews who arrive at the scene of an unrecorded incident without prior receipt of an emergency call) are counted as red calls, as are calls answered by either a Health Care Professional on Scene with a Defibrillator (MEDIC), or a Public Access Defibrillator (PAD).

Health Care Professionals¹ (HCP) Urgent & Planned Calls are identified as green; where an HCP call poses an immediate threat to life, these calls will be prioritised according the final Medical Priority Dispatch System priority.
¹ Doctor, General Practitioner, Emergency Care Practitioner, Nurse, District Nurse, Midwife, Paramedic, Dentist, Approved Social Worker.

As a result of these changes, nearly all of the data from the trial is not comparable to that for before October 2015. Some of the differences include:
• Call categories A & C have been removed and replaced by colour coding.
• Call handlers are allowed up to an additional two minutes to accurately identify both the severity and nature of a patient’s condition (for those calls that are not immediately life threatening), and the clinical resource they require before dispatching an ambulance.
• A small proportion of calls that were classed as red 2 calls have been moved to the red category and a proportion of calls have been re-categorised from red 1. This means that comparisons cannot be made between performance against the old red1/2 categories and the current red category.
• The changes will result in a reduction in the number of calls received with a time target.
• An 8 minute response time target is only applied to red calls and therefore comparisons of the 8 minute target performance cannot be made for before and after 1 October 2015.

The total number of calls received prior to 1 October 2015 can still be compared with total calls under the current model. This is done by adding in the GP urgent calls - which were classed as urgent not emergency - prior to December 2011.

Therefore only overall call volumes can be compared over time, whilst all other measures during the trial period can only be compared within the trial model.

CHANGES DURING THE TRIAL:

From 11 November, calls which are originally coded as amber or green and during the initial call taking process the patient deteriorates, these are then re-coded through Professional Question & Answering or by the use of a manual dispatch code/override to red. For these calls, the clock start is re-registered as the time the call is re-coded to red.

Calls which are originally coded as red and during the initial call taking process the patient’s condition improves these are then re-coded through Professional Question & Answering or by the use of a manual dispatch code/override to amber or green depending on condition. For these calls clock start is re-registered as the time the call is re-coded to amber or green.

The overall impact of this meant that – from 11 to 30 November - an additional 37 calls arrived at the scene within the 8 minute target time, increasing the percentage arriving within the target time by 2.2 percentage points.

Data collection and calculation

Monthly return from the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST), at Local Health Board (LHB) level. Data is submitted on an EXCEL spreadsheet and transferred to an ACCESS database; validation checks including monthly trends are carried out and any queries are taken up with WAST.

Frequency of publication

Monthly

Data reference periods

Monthly from October 2015

Users, uses and context

This information is included in the related quality report - see weblink.

Statistical quality

This information is included in the related quality report - see weblink.

Keywords

Ambulance

Weblinks

Release:
https://gov.wales/ambulance-services
https://cwmtaf.wales/welsh-government-announce-decision-on-bridgend-boundary-change/
https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-board-boundary-bridgend-associated-planning

Metadata

Title

Last update

Next update

Publishing organisation

Source 1

Contact email

Designation

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Geographical coverage

Languages covered

Data licensing

General description

Data collection and calculation

Frequency of publication

Data reference periods

Users, uses and context

Statistical quality

Keywords

Weblinks

Name

Dataset

Metadata

Dimensions

Items