People are also having to wait longer for ambulances to arrive when called. Ambulance services say it is taking longer to hand over patients but they are doing all they can to meet demand. It comes as the NHS faces unprecedented pressure because of the Covid pandemic. A paramedic working in London told BBC News he had encountered patients left waiting up to 12 hours for an ambulance in the last week.
One patient in London with a broken leg had to wait outside at night for six hours before an ambulance arrived to collect him, he said. On another occasion, paramedics were called to attend to a young man with Covid whose oxygen levels were "so low".
He was given oxygen when they arrived - but that was eight hours after the ambulance was called. Incidents such as these are "dangerous" and the service is "on its knees", the paramedic added.
The figures also show that at one point on Monday this week more than patients were left waiting for an ambulance to arrive in London when none was available. Different statistics obtained by BBC News highlight the number of hours spent waiting to offload patients at hospitals half an hour after ambulances arrived at hospitals in the South East. South East Coast Ambulance service lost 7, hours queuing outside hospitals, an increase on 5, hours in They were progressively rolled out across the rest of England and, since April , all 11 ambulance services have provided data on the new systems indicators.
Ambulance trusts use one of the approved triage tools to allocate incidents to one of the new response categories as quickly and accurately as possible. The response categories are as follows:. Urgent problem not immediately life-threatening that needs treatment to relieve suffering e.
Problems that are not urgent but need assessment face-to-face or telephone and possibly transport within a clinically appropriate timeframe. They stated that:. From June , the former Category A call category was further separated into Red 1 and Red 2 calls:. We look at the number of calls to NHS and the percentage that receive clinical input.
Enter search term here. Latest Indicators Analysis Annual statements About. Ambulance response times. We look at response times to ambulance calls and how many are hitting nationally set targets. Emergency care. Category 3: Urgent Urgent problem not immediately life-threatening that needs treatment to relieve suffering e. Category 4: Non-urgent Problems that are not urgent but need assessment face-to-face or telephone and possibly transport within a clinically appropriate timeframe.
From June , the former Category A call category was further separated into Red 1 and Red 2 calls: Red 1 calls were the most time critical, covering cardiac arrest patients who were not breathing and did not have a pulse, and other severe conditions. Red 2 calls were serious but less immediately time critical, covering conditions such as stroke and fits. In life-threatening emergencies, people often expect an ambulance with two people to arrive, but the patient could also be treated by one of our single responders who arrive by car, motorcycle or bicycle.
All of these vehicles carry the vital life-saving equipment needed in an emergency. They can get through traffic quicker and means we can get treatment to your patient more quickly. If a single responder is sent, a traditional ambulance response will follow to provide further support and transport for the patient. An urgent call by a GP is defined by the Department of Health as not an emergency but as one where a time limit is set, one to four hours , and therefore has a lower priority.
They help keep our paramedics and emergency medical technicians free to attend the higher categorised emergency calls. We aim to be with the patient within 15 minutes of the time specified by the GP.
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