§ Mr. Home RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the average time taken between a 999 telephone call from the Dunbar area and the arrival of the patient by ambulance at the accident and emergency department at the Royal infirmary in Edinburgh.
§ Mr. StewartWe estimate that on receipt of a 999 call it takes three minutes to activate an ambulance and 13 minutes to travel to the scene. This compares favourably with the national target response time of 18 minutes. Ambulance crews usually spend about 10 minutes at the scene and the average journey time from Dunbar to the accident and emergency department at Edinburgh royal infirmary is 39 minutes. The average total time taken is therefore 1 hour 5 minutes.