Emergency calls increase by 6.1%

In June, annual performance data for ambulance services in England were published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Workforce and Facilities Team, Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2015). It revealed that the number of emergency 999 calls presented to ambulance switchboards over the past year was 9 million. This represents an increase of 515 506 (6.1%) over last year's 8.49 million calls. To break this down, this is an average of 24 661 calls per day or 17.1 calls per minute.

Of these calls, 3.14 million (48.5%) were classified as category A (most urgent) and resulted in a response from an emergency vehicle. Of these, 5.2% (164 478) were classed as Red 1 (most serious) and 94.8% (2.98 million) were classed as Red 2 (serious but less urgent). The response rates within 8 minutes were as follows: Red 1—71.9% nationally with 5 of the 11 ambulance Trusts achieving 75% or more (compared to 75.6% for 2013–14); Red 2—69.1% nationally with 1 of the 11 ambulance Trusts achieving 75% or more.