§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the response times by ambulances to 999 calls within the mid-Essex area for each of the last five years; what was the national average time for England as a whole for the same period; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleInformation on ambulance emergency response times is not collected centrally on an individual health authority basis. Information on the Essex ambulance service for each of the last five years is shown in the table.
Ambulance service emergency response times Percentage of calls responded to within 20 minutes (1988–89 to 1990–91) and 19 minutes (1990–91 onwards) Essex Ambulance Service 1988–89 87.0 1989–90 79.1 1990–91 93.7 1991–92 96.5 1992–93 98.6 In 1990, following the acceptance of a report from the independent consultants ORH, a tighter response time for rural ambulance services was adopted. The response time target—now the patients charter standard—was changed from 20 to 19 minutes.