FOI 26-387 Raigmore Hospital Turnaround Times
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-387 Raigmore Hospital Turnaround Times
- Request Date
- 27 Aug 2026
- Response Date
- 16 Sep 2026
- Information Requested
Data specific to Raigmore Hospital A&E department, Inverness For the years 2020 - current, please provide date for: - the average time patients were held in an ambulance outside Raigmore A&E department - the longest time a patient was held in the ambulance outside the A&E department
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not record information in a way that allows us to determine how long an individual patient was held in an ambulance outside Raigmore Hospital's Accident & Emergency Department before being admitted or handed over to hospital staff. After clarification, you requested Turnaround time information for Raigmore Hospital.
Please note caution when interpreting this data
Ambulance turnaround time is defined as the period from when a vehicle arrives at a hospital to the point at which it is able to depart and become available for the next call.
These recorded times incorporate a range of operational activities and external factors. This includes, but is not limited to, ambulance clinicians continuing to support patient care prior to formal handover, completing clinical and administrative processes, cleaning and preparing the vehicle for safe reuse, and, in some cases, providing information or statements to partner agencies such as the police.
As such, turnaround times should not be interpreted as a direct measure of the time taken to transfer a patient into hospital care. The metric reflects the total time an ambulance resource remains on site and unavailable for redeployment, rather than solely the duration of the clinical handover process.
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 but greater that zero. 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.
Please see the attached sheet detailing the average and maximum turnaround time for emergency vehicles at Raigmore hospital. Where delays occurred, SAS and Raigmore Hospital remained in contact to make sure patients' conditions were being monitored. I reviewed the notes for the incidents with the longest turnaround times and found records of communication between A&E and SAS, including welfare checks being carried out on patients.
- Response Documents
