HC Deb 26 March 1993 vol 221 cc753-4W
Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list for each ambulance service(a) the proportion of ambulance service responses which are a result of doctors' urgent calls, (b) the average response time for such calls and (c) the targets she has set for response times; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Sackville

Urgent calls for an ambulance may be made by people other than doctors—for example, expectant mothers. Information on urgent patient journeys does not distinguish between types of caller. The proportion of patient journeys classified as urgent is set out in the table for each ambulance authority in England. Information on average response times for urgent calls is not available centrally. Ninety-five per cent. of urgent responses should arrive at the hospital within 15 minutes of the time agreed between the doctor and the ambulance authority.

Ambulance services 1991–92 England Urgent patient journeys as a proportion of all patient journeys1
Total patient journeys (thousands) Urgent patient journeys (thousands) Urgent journeys as total journeys (percentage)
Non-metropolitan authorities
Cleveland 216.0 24.2 11
Cumbria 250.0 14.0 6
Durham 332.6 14.4 4
Humberside 417.9 22.6 5
North Yorkshire 274.1 21.5 8
Derbyshire 318.1 23.7 7
Leicestershire 290.6 26.0 9
Lincolnshire (NHS Trust) 190.0 18.5 10
Nottinghamshire 443.0 25.3 6
Cambridgeshire 272.8 11.9 4
Norfolk (NHS Trust) 304.1 20.9 7
Suffolk 264.0 10.2 4
Bedfordshire 148.8 9.3 6
Hertfordshire 189.9 15.5 8
Essex 550.1 27.3 5
East Sussex 393.7 20.0 5
Kent 352.9 29.1 8
Surrey 437.4 18.8 4
West Sussex 267.1 15.0 6
Dorset 322.5 19.5 6
Hampshire 212.7 30.6 14
Wiltshire 276.6 16.3 6
Isle of Wight 45.8 2.8 6
Berkshire 190.1 12.8 7
Buckinghamshire 167.7 11.5 7
Northamptonshire 160.1 14.0 9
Oxfordshire 181.5 10.4 6
Avon 308.5 23.2 8
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly(NHS Trust) 107.6 13.8 13
Devon 574.8 32.8 6
Gloucestershire 185.7 14.4 8
Somerset 172.3 14.1 8
Hereford and Worcestershire 216.9 14.5 7
Shropshire 93.6 11.3 12
Staffordshire 305.6 20.4 7
Warwickshire 96.2 16.7 17
Cheshire 243.2 21.5 9
Lancashire 528.8 30.9 6
Metropolitan authorities
Northumbria Met (NHS Trust) 764.2 53.1 7
West Yorkshire Met 1,048.3 63.5 6
South Yorkshire Met 578.5 33.1 6
London Ambulance Service 1,639.5 76.6 5
West Midlands Met 762.8 86.4 11
Mersey Met 701.5 38.4 5
Greater Manchester Met 1,067.6 70.0 7
1 Figures are provisional