Ambulance callout statistics (FOI)

​Request

A

Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 for each year please provide the total volume of ambulance call outs.

B

Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 for each year please provide the total volume of emergency ambulance call outs (ie blue light required).

C

Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 for each year please provide the total volume of ambulance call outs that resulted in blue lights on the journey from the patient / patients to the General Hospital

D

Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 for each year please provide the total volume of ambulance call outs that did not require the patient / patients being brought to the General Hospital.

E

Between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 for each year please provide the total volume of ambulance call outs when the ambulance was despatched from the General Hospital and not the Ambulance Station on Elizabeth Avenue.

F

If the records are kept, please provide the volume of ambulance destinations by Parish since 1 January 2015. I do not require an annual breakdown.

G

What are the average response times for an ambulance?

H

Please provide details if protocols are in place of the expected response times for ambulances to various key locations across the Island, and if those response times differ across the day and time of day

Response

A

Calls to the ambulance service are firstly categorised at three levels:

• emergency – these are calls to 999

• urgent – these are typically calls where a GP has been called to a patient and decided that they require admission to hospital via ambulance (anywhere this is an emergency they will be counted in the Emergency call category)

• routine – these are calls where an ambulance is required to transfer a patient – eg from one HCS site to another.

Table 1: Calls Attended by Ambulance Service*, 2015 to 2020

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

*This is not total calls received by the service; it is those where a response is required and where a resource arrives at the scene of the call

B

We do not hold data on when a blue light is required. This question is taken to refer to the Emergency calls. See the first column in Table 1 above.

C

We do not hold data on when a blue light is required. Therefore (as in B above) this question is taken to refer to all Emergency calls

Table 2: Number of emergency calls where patient(s) were conveyed to Jersey General Hospital, 2015 to 2020

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

D

Table 3: Emergency Calls attended where patient(s) not conveyed to Jersey General Hospital, 2015 to 2020

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

E

The data is not held to answer this question.

F

Table 4: Calls attended by ambulance, by Parish, 2015-2020

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

G

Only emergency calls are subject to response times and the response time varies by the severity of the chief complaint. This question has therefore been answered with a breakdown by category to provide this context. The category is defined based on the standards in use in Jersey since 2020. These are:

• Red1 – Situation is immediately life-threatening

• Red2 – Situation is serious or could be life-threatening

• Green1 – Situation is serious but not immediately life-threatening

• Green2 – Situation is less serious and not life-threatening

• Green3 – Non-urgent calls

Data from previous years have been re-mapped to these categories, but comparison of response times over the years must take into account that these were not the standards that were in place at the time of the call in the earlier years.

Table 5: Average response time (minutes) to Emergency Calls by Category, 2015 to 2020

 Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

H

Ambulance response times for Jersey are used to help benchmark performance.

• Red 1 and 2 calls are measured within 8 minutes 75% of the time

• Green 1 and 2 calls are measured within 18 minutes 75% of the time

• Green 3 calls are measured within 30 minutes 75% of the time

Response times are measured from recording of the chief complaint on the dispatch system to arrival on scene, they remain the same throughout the day and night and do not differ by location.