Ambulance Shift Cover
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- 1670/22
- Request Date
- 21 Sep 2022
- Response Date
- 01 Nov 2022
- Information Requested
- How does the ambulance system work for shift cover on weekdays and weekends in the Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire regions?
- How many ambulances are on for each shift of the day for both areas?
- Can you give a breakdown for each day of the past month between August 16th and September 16th for the peak time for ambulances queuing outside Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and/or the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital to drop off patients and how many ambulances were in the queue at that time.
- For each of these days, what was the longest time an ambulance spent in the queue and can you give the reason for this?
- Response
- How does the ambulance system work for shift cover on weekdays and weekends in the Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire regions?
Ambulance cover varies by hours of day and day of week in alignment with patient demand profiles. Hour of day profiles are attached for Aberdeenshire as a whole, which includes the stations in Aberdeen
Aberdeen stations have also been separated out for information as well. Note that as of mid-November, in addition to the profiles attached. An additional 24/7 double crewed ambulance and paramedic response unit will go live as part of the implementation of our demand and capacity programme
- How many ambulances are on for each shift of the day for both areas?
As above, please see attached the information we hold.
We do not hold this information against the number of vehicles for each shift per day.
We have applied Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act to question, the number of ambulances on each shift of the day for both areas, because public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request.
There’s a distinction between creating new information, and compiling information. Where a request can be answered by compiling information from readily-available resources held by the public authority, this is not the same as creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex judgement, the information is not held.
Without considerable skill and judgement we are not able to identify and retrieve the data needed to provide a response to your question. This would require minute by minute analysis of all data held for the specific area and all surrounding areas as we are a National Service and vehicle cover provided is dynamic and fluid with ever changing variables.
- Can you give a breakdown for each day of the past month between August 16th and September 16th for the peak time for ambulances queuing outside Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and/or the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital to drop off patients
We do not hold this information. We do not record data against “peak time”
How many ambulances were in the queue at that time.
As above, we do not hold this information.
- For each of these days, what was the longest time an ambulance spent in the queue, and can you give the reason for this?
The Scottish Ambulance service is publishing a weekly update of key statistics on unscheduled care operational measures across Scotland. The information includes trends in the number of unscheduled care incidents, responses, conveyances to hospital, response times and hospital turnaround times.
These can be found on our website Unscheduled Care Operational Statistics (scottishambulance.com)
Please see below the longest time(s) for the given date recorded for Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
Please note caution on the interpretation of the data provided.
The turnaround time(s) show total time from the time an ambulance arrives at the receiving hospital to the time it becomes available again within our systems.
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold reasons for extended turnaround times against specific conveyances.
To Hospital
Resource Arrived Destination Date
Turnaround Time
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
16/08/2022
301:02
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
17/08/2022
234:49
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
18/08/2022
146:58
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
19/08/2022
182:55
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
20/08/2022
265:03
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
21/08/2022
287:47
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
22/08/2022
206:25
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
23/08/2022
207:36
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
24/08/2022
255:56
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
25/08/2022
204:50
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
26/08/2022
157:23
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
27/08/2022
232:50
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
28/08/2022
313:24
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
29/08/2022
264:00
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
30/08/2022
319:57
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
31/08/2022
176:40
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
01/09/2022
141:23
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
02/09/2022
186:58
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
03/09/2022
200:23
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
04/09/2022
312:44
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
05/09/2022
264:30
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
06/09/2022
291:55
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
07/09/2022
221:04
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
08/09/2022
305:58
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
09/09/2022
240:47
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
10/09/2022
426:05
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
11/09/2022
338:53
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
12/09/2022
421:29
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
13/09/2022
533:44
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
14/09/2022
269:23
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
15/09/2022
266:35
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (Aberdeen)
16/09/2022
292:47
To Hospital
Resource Arrived Destination Date
Turnaround Time
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
16/08/2022
12:01
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
17/08/2022
44:26
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
19/08/2022
25:44
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
20/08/2022
43:00
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
21/08/2022
50:00
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
22/08/2022
19:24
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
23/08/2022
39:47
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
24/08/2022
34:07
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
26/08/2022
34:20
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
27/08/2022
30:10
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
28/08/2022
28:33
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
29/08/2022
26:15
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
30/08/2022
16:36
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
31/08/2022
28:01
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
01/09/2022
40:07
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
02/09/2022
29:36
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
03/09/2022
20:25
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
04/09/2022
33:04
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
05/09/2022
28:47
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
06/09/2022
69:18
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
07/09/2022
22:22
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
08/09/2022
101:00
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
09/09/2022
48:10
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
10/09/2022
2:29
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
11/09/2022
57:56
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
12/09/2022
53:09
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
14/09/2022
47:48
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
15/09/2022
30:12
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital (Aberdeen)
16/09/2022
31:03
- Response Documents
