Ambulance response times (FOI)

Request

A

I would request information on what the average current wait time are for Ambulances arriving at an emergency? 

B

Are Ambulance emergency calls ranked in terms of priority? If so how does this ranking system work e.g. is it numerical, which calls classify as emergency?

C

What is the longest amount of time it has taken for an ambulance to arrive at a call? What is the shortest amount of time an ambulance has taken to arrive at an emergency call? 

D

How many ambulances have broken down whilst on a call? 

E

How many calls did Jersey ambulance service attend in 2021, how many have they attended in 2022 so far?

Response

A

Average Ambulance response times are published on www.gov.je. Please see measures 20 and 21 in the following link:

Justice and Home Affairs Performance Measures 2022 (gov.je) 

B 

The ambulance service introduced the Ambulance response programme (ARP) in October 2022. A triage tool is used by call handlers and dispatchers to ensure that the sickest patients are prioritised and that patients receive the right response for their condition. 

Each call is triaged using dedicated triage tools and based on the information given by the caller, a category (below) is assigned to the call. Each Category has its own time thresholds with lower times for ambulance arrival required for the sickest patients. 

• Category 1 Potentially Immediately life threatening - 7 minutes + 60 seconds for call taking (Total 8 minutes Mean Average) 
• Category 2 Potentially Serious conditions (ABCD Problem) but not immediately life threatening – 18 minutes Mean Average 
• Category 3 Urgent problem – 120 minutes Mean Average 
• Category 4 Less urgent problem - 180 minutes Mean Average 

Prior to the introduction of ARP - 999 calls were triaged and categorised as Red1, Red2, Green1, Green2, Green3, with Red1 calls being the highest clinical category (life threatening). 

C

Longest wait – 9 hours 12 minutes to one of the lowest priority calls prior to the introduction of ARP. ARP has introduced a change in the system which means that all calls in the same category now receive an ambulance in the order they were received to prevent excessively long waits. Excessively long waits in Jersey are minimal in number and the Service has taken action to address this. 

Shortest wait - 0 mins (ambulance response on scene at the time of call). 

D

This information is not currently available but break downs are very rare. 

E

The total number of calls are published on a quarterly basis on www.gov.je. Quarter 3 date is due to be published imminently.

Justice and Home Affairs Performance Measures 2022 (gov.je)