Ambulance response times improve in latest emergency call figures

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

Ambulance response times across a Welsh county have shown an improvement in latest figures published.

Welsh Government statistics show during February this year there were 793 calls recorded in Gwent for the most serious red category which are those at high risk of cardiac or respiratory arrest, including illnesses and trauma.

The Welsh Ambulance Service’s median response time – which is the middle number of all response times and used to measure performance as it isn’t skewed by either really fast or slow responses – for red calls in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area was seven minutes and 58 second in February.

The Welsh Government target is that such calls are responded to within six to eight minutes.

February’s figure was a 24 second improvement on January’s eight minutes and 22 seconds response time, when there were 1,053 red calls, and was also better than the 8.43 minute figure for December 2025 when there were 1,119 such calls.

February’s performance matched October when there were 828 red calls and also bettered the 8.14 minute performance from August and 8.19 minute figure from July when the new call categories were introduced, those figures were recorded against 774 and 813 calls respectively.

The only month in which the ambulance service bettered its February response time, for red calls, was November with 7.34m against 882 calls.

The Welsh Government also publishes a 90 th percentile figure, which is the point at which 90 per cent of responses were quicker and 10 per cent were slower, with the target being 20 minutes so that 90 per cent of calls receive an ambulance response within 20 minutes.

Aneurin Bevan

In the Aneurin Bevan area this figure for February was 17.42m which meant 90 per cent of patients received a response within this time, across Wales the target was missed as 90 per cent received a response within 21 minutes and 45 seconds.

The ambulance service achieved a better 90 th percentile figure in the area during November, October and July last year.

The 90 th percentile figure for purple calls for people suffering from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which also has a six to eight minute target response time, were the best recorded in Gwent since the new system was introduced.

In February 90 per cent of patients received a response within 13 minutes and 16 seconds, compared to a Wales wide figure of 15 minutes and 30 seconds with the target again being 90 per cent should receive a response within 20 minutes.

February’s figure for the Aneurin Bevan board area was a two and half minute improvement on January. The previous best 90 th percentile response figure was 13.41 minutes recorded in November.

When the new call categories were introduced the Welsh Government also said the primary measure for purple calls would be the percentage of people to have a heartbeat restored after a cardiac arrest until arrival at hospital, known as the ROSC rate (Return of Spontaneous Circulation). It said countries including Ireland, Scotland and Australia already use the approach and survival rates have improved.

In Gwent that showed during February 23.3 per cent of patients had their heartbeat restored and retained until arrival at hospital, although higher percentages were recorded in September, October and November when the figure was 26.2 per cent. The all Wales figure for February was 21.4 per cent.

Best response time

Labour Senedd candidate for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, Anthony Hunt, said: “The ambulance service recorded its best response time in February.”

He said a new Welsh Labour government will also require health boards to put forward a transport plan to improve transport routes to and from hospital sites for non-emergency visits which he said will ease pressure.

Conservative candidate for Sir Fynwy Torfaen Peter Fox also acknowledged improved response times but said: “While the health board may have some of the better statistics in Wales, we are still nowhere near good enough. It’s barely a 50/50 chance of you being seen within an acceptable timeframe.”

Mike Hamilton, Liberal Democrat candidate for the Casnewydd Islwyn constituency, said the ambulance service remains in crisis, and like other parties said resolving problems with patients stuck in hospital due to a lack of care in the community and ambulances delayed at emergency departments would address response times.

He said: “The response, as in the past, was for the Welsh Government to move the goalposts, in order to hit targets. Narrowing the definition of the most serious call-outs (red) is not really a proper response.”

The Welsh Ambulance Service said, when it introduced the new call categories, it did so in response to a recommendation from the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee, which concluded the existing ambulance response target, in place since 1974. was no longer appropriate or fit for purpose.