§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department issues in relation to the maximum time which ambulances should take in transporting pregnant mothers to hospitals in emergencies. [167486]
§ Ms Rosie Winterton[holding answer 22 April 2004]: All patients requiring urgent hospital treatment should be transported to hospital without delay. There are no maximum transport times which ambulances should take in transporting pregnant mothers to hospitals in emergencies. There are, however, targets for response times. As with all emergency calls to ambulance services, guidance on response times is based on medical need.
Current ambulance response targets include:
Category A calls: Presenting conditions which may be immediately life threatening and which should be responded to within eight minutes irrespective of location in 75 per cent. of cases.Category B calls: Presenting conditions which though serious are not immediately life threatening and should be responded to within 14 minutes (urban) and 19 minutes (rural) in 95 per cent. of cases.