FOI 25-570 South Lanarkshire Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-570 South Lanarkshire Incidents
- Request Date
- 07 Dec 2025
- Response Date
- 07 Jan 2026
- Information Requested
At the start of the morning shift on 7/12/25,how many ambulances in South Lanarkshire were available to answer calls? 2. At 10.30 hrs, how many ambulances were allocated to a call in South Lanarkshire? 3. How many were sitting waiting at Wishaw General for patients to be handed over to hospital staff?. 4. How many community responders were available within a 10 mile radius of Kirkmuirhill on the above date? 5. Were any deployed to any calls in the Kirkmuirhill area, and if so, how many calls? 6. What was the longest wait on the above date for a ambulance to attend a call from 10.00 to 23.59 in South Lanarkshire?
- Response
At the start of the morning shift on 7/12/25, how many ambulances in South Lanarkshire were available to answer calls?
The Scottish Ambulance Service operates as a national service, and ambulance vehicles are routinely
deployed beyond their designated base locations in response to operational demand. In circumstances where the locally based ambulance is deployed elsewhere, the nearest available resource is dispatched to respond to emergency calls. This may include units from neighbouring areas or, where clinically appropriate, the use of air ambulance services. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held as to how many ambulances were available to answer calls. Ambulances may not be available to answer calls as they are on an incident, they may be marked unavailable if they are doing vehicle inspections, breaks etc.
- At 10.30 hrs, how many ambulances were allocated to a call in South Lanarkshire?
There were less than 5 ambulances allocated to incidents in South Lanarkshire at 10.30am on 7th December 2025.
Please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
- How many were sitting waiting at Wishaw General for patients to be handed over to hospital staff?.
We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to this question of your request. The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold a dataset for how many ambulances were waiting at Wishaw General Hospital and therefore it is information not held.
Please see the attached sheet that provides the number of conveyances, average, median[1] and 90th percentile[2] turnaround times for Wishaw Hospital on 07/12/2025.
The Service does record turnaround times, which is from when an ambulance arrives at hospital to the point of departure. These turnaround times are affected by a wide range of factors, including ambulance staff cleaning vehicles following patient transportation, supporting the ongoing care of the patient and on occasions providing statements to the police.
These turnaround times ARE NOT comparable to the handover times of other UK Ambulance Trusts. Our local management teams are working closely with Health Boards to ensure that ambulances are released as quickly as possible.
- How many community responders were available within a 10 mile radius of Kirkmuirhill on the above date?
On the 7th December 2025 there were no volunteer community first responders available within the area requested.
- Were any deployed to any calls in the Kirkmuirhill area, and if so, how many calls?
No
- What was the longest wait on the above date for an ambulance to attend a call from 10.00 to 23.59 in South Lanarkshire?
Response Times are based on the following call colour categories:
Purple: Our most critically ill patients. This is where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of having a cardiac arrest. The actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is approximately 53%.
Red: Our next most serious category where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%, or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%. Currently the cardiac arrest rate in this category is approximately 1.5%.
Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and transport to hospital or specialist care. The cardiac arrest rates for all of these codes is less than 0.5%.
Yellow: a patient who has a need for care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.
Please see the attached sheet for the emergency incident response times in South Lanarkshire on 07/12/2025 between 10am to 23.59pm. For each call category there are the number of incidents attended, average response times, median[3] response times, 90th percentile[4] response times and maximum response times.
Please note: the response times show total time and do not factor in possible upgrading or downgrading that may occur depending on the patient condition. For example, a call may start out as a yellow call, subsequently be upgraded to a purple call sometime later, but only the total time from the first call received is shown. The starting point is always set for the colour category first determined, not the final colour category assigned. Where delays occur, clinical advisors maintain contact with the patient, checking their condition on an ongoing basis, and upgrading when appropriate.
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
[1] The time in which 50% of SAS Crews spend at hospital as a result of conveying a patient. This time runs from when the crew arrive at the hospital to when they are clear from the incident.
[2] The time in which 90% of SAS Crews spend at hospital as a result of conveying a patient. This time runs from when the crew arrive at the hospital to when they are clear from the incident.
[3] The time in which 50% of patients are reached by a SAS crew
[4] The time in which 90% of patients are reached by a SAS crew
- Response Documents
