Recommendation 15

In 2021–22, mean Category 1 ambulance response times varied from six minutes 51 seconds for the London ambulance service to ten minutes 20 seconds for the South-West ambulance service, and average 999 call response times ranged from 5.4 seconds for the West Midlands ambulance service to 67.4 seconds for the South-West ambulance service.35 We asked what could be done to address differences between ambulance services. NHS England accepted that ambulance response times were not at all where they needed to be over the winter. It added that ambulance services covering large rural areas, for example the services in the south-west and east of England, were particularly challenged and disproportionately affected by problems stemming from the flow of patients elsewhere in the system.36 It also told us that while all ambulances services worked in partnership with their local systems to develop solutions to treat more people in their homes and reduce admissions to hospital, there was variation in how this was being done.37