The ambulance service in England took 7.87 million emergency and urgent calls in 2009/10; 391,000 more than in the previous year, a new report from The NHS Information Centre shows today.

It also completed 4.70 million urgent and emergency patient journeys in 2009/10; just over 191,000 more than in the previous year, according to Ambulance Services: England, 2009-10.

The report also includes for the first time figures on the number of least urgent calls (category C calls) resolved with telephone advice only. In 2009/10 the figure was 221,000, or 8.8 per cent of all category C calls.

Ambulance responses are split by category; A (immediately life threatening) B (serious but not immediately life threatening) or C (not immediately serious or life threatening). For category A incidents, the service has a target of an emergency response arriving at the scene within eight minutes in 75 per cent of cases, and a fully equipped ambulance, if required, to attend within 19 minutes within 95 per cent of cases.

In 2009/10 the percentage of category A incidents resulting in an emergency response arriving at the scene within eight minutes was 74.3 per cent, the same as the previous year, while the percentage resulting in a fully equipped ambulance arriving in 19 minutes was 96.8 per cent, compared to 96.9 per cent the previous year. Of the 12 NHS organisations providing ambulance services, seven met or exceeded the 75 per cent standard for eight minute response times, the same number as the previous year. Four exceeded 72 per cent and one over 70 per cent.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “This report shows the ambulance service is busier than ever, and also gives new detail about how many calls are resolved with telephone advice only.

“This is the second report we have published since the new “call connect” response target was introduced, and it appears roughly the same percentage of the most serious calls were responded to within the eight minute target as in the previous year, although of course more calls were dealt with in 2009/10.

“The figures give a clear picture of how the ambulance service operated on the ground last year and will help both the service and the NHS plan for the future”.

The full report is at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/ambserv0910

Notes to editors

1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. Emergency & Urgent calls From 1 April 2007, in addition to “emergency” 999 calls, ambulance services were required to take patients to hospital where a doctor, midwife or other health care professional identifies the need as urgent. Urgent calls are now prioritised and classified in the same way as emergency calls. Due to the nature of urgent calls, the majority are likely to be classified as category C, a small proportion will be category B and there may be a small number assigned to category A, however these are expected to be negligible. It is not possible to separate out emergency and urgent calls. Due to the inclusion of urgent calls, the data relating to part 1 of the KA34 (calls, incidents and volumes of incidents responded to) from 2007-08 are not directly comparable with previous years in terms of numbers, however the performance against response times requirements for category A and B are considered to be comparable over time and are shown where relevant.
3. Full category definitions: Category A: presenting conditions, which may be immediately life threatening and should receive an emergency response within 8 minutes irrespective of location in 75% of cases. Presenting conditions, which require a fully equipped ambulance vehicle to attend the incident, must have an ambulance vehicle arrive within 19 minutes of the request for transport being made in 95% of cases, unless the control room decides that an ambulance is not required. Category B: presenting conditions, which though serious are not immediately life threatening and must receive a response within 19 minutes in 95% of cases. Category C: presenting conditions which are not immediately serious or life threatening. For these calls the response time standards are not set nationally but are locally determined.
4. For the purposes of the Category A 8-minute standard, an emergency response may only be by: a. An emergency ambulance; or b. A rapid response vehicle equipped with a defibrillator to provide treatment at the scene; or c. An approved first responder equipped with a defibrillator, who is accountable to the ambulance service; or when a healthcare professional is at the location of the incident, equipped with a defibrillator and deemed clinically appropriate to respond by the trust. A first responder is not a substitute for an ambulance response and an ambulance response should be dispatched to all calls attended by an approved first responder.
5. The way in which response times are measured changed on April 1 2008, which means data prior to 2008/09 is not comparable with the figures in this report. The new “call connect” response times are now measured from the point where the call is received at the control room switchboard to when the response arrives on scene. Prior to the change, response times were measured from the point where a series of details were recorded by the control room, such as exact location and nature of the incident, to when the response arrived on scene.