Eastern Ambulance Targets
Thursday 26th January 2012
EAST OF ENGLAND AMBULANCE SERVICE
MANAGERS MUST STOP LOGGING INCIDENTS AS TARGET MET WHEN THE
EMERGENCY HAS NOT BEEN DEALT WITH SAYS GMB
One thing that they cannot allow is
management distorting the figures on targets met because this
simply misleads the public and everybody else.
GMB, the union for ambulance staff, is
accusing the East of England ambulance Service of misleading the
public regarding its record for meeting the 8 minute target to
respond to Category A calls. Category A calls are incidences which
are immediately life threatening – an emergency response should
reach 75% of these calls within eight minutes. The figures for
the response times for April to October 2011 for the various UK
ambulance services is set out in the table below. These show the
East of England Service responding to 75.9% of the calls within 8
minutes.
However, GMB members want to draw attention to
practises which are distorting the figures and misleading the
public. For example GMB has been told by a concerned member of the
public that East of England Ambulance Service sent a rapid response
car to an accident victim with a fractured hip in West Mersea in
Essex on 3rd January which, staffed by a single person
could only wait with this the patient for the for the two and a
half hours it took for the ambulance to arrive. The patient
remained on the ground, in the rain, for the whole two and a half
hours until he could be moved into the ambulance. Because the rapid
response vehicle reached the patient within the 8 minutes this
would have been logged as a Category A target met. In this case
this is far from the true and is misleading the public.
Meeting targets will be even more difficult as
a result of the proposed job cuts by East of England Ambulance
Service.
|
Response Times By Ambulance Services in the
United Kingdom April-October 2011
|
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| |
|
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Category A calls with a response within:
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8 minutes
|
19 minutes
|
| |
|
|
|
England
|
76.3
|
97.0
|
|
Wales
|
70
|
--
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|
Scotland
|
73.4
|
--
|
|
Northern Ireland
|
69.7*
|
--
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| |
|
|
|
East Midlands
|
75.2
|
92.7
|
|
East of England
|
75.9
|
95.0
|
|
South Western
|
76.3
|
95.8
|
|
North West
|
76.6
|
96.0
|
|
South Central
|
78.1
|
96.0
|
|
Great Western
|
76.1
|
97.5
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Isle of Wight
|
76.0
|
97.6
|
|
West Midlands
|
76.8
|
98.0
|
|
Yorkshire
|
76.0
|
98.0
|
|
South East Coast
|
76.4
|
98.2
|
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North East
|
77.2
|
98.6
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|
London
|
76.0
|
99.3
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| |
|
|
|
Category A response targets emergency response
arriving within 8 minutes:
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England and Scotland: 75%
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Wales: 65%
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Northern Ireland: 72.5% from April 2010, 75%
from March 2011
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|
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Category A response targets fully equipped
ambulance, if required, arriving within 19 minutes:
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England: 95%
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Mick Vivian, GMB Organiser said,
“Ambulance staff want to do everything possible to look
after the health and wellbeing of the public. To enable them to do
this they need the resources and the management to allow them to do
their vital jobs.
One thing that they cannot allow is
management distorting the figures on targets met because this
simply misleads the public and everybody else. The case in West
Mersea is not an isolated incident and no one can argue that
sending a vehicle that cannot deal with the emergency should be
logged as a target met. GMB want to see an end to such form
filling.
GMB members in the East of England
Ambulance Service are concerned for the service when there are
unconfirmed reports of up to 400 proposed jobs and vehicle
cuts over the next three years.”
Ends
Contact: Mick Vivian, GMB
Organiser on 07974 251826 or Keri Webb, GMB Organiser on 07710
631334 or GMB Press Office: Rose Conroy on 07974 251823 or Steve
Pryle on 07921 289880.
Notes to Editors:
Emergency 999 calls to the ambulance service
are prioritised into two categories to ensure life-threatening
cases receive the quickest response:
Immediately life threatening – An emergency
response will reach 75% of these calls within eight minutes.
Where onward transport is required, 95% of life-threatening calls
will receive an ambulance vehicle capable of transporting the
patient safely within 19 minutes of the request for transport being
made.
All other calls – For conditions that are not
life threatening, response targets are set locally.