FOI 26-426 ARI Turnaround Times
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-426 ARI Turnaround Times
- Request Date
- 15 Sep 2026
- Response Date
- 07 Oct 2026
- Information Requested
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, please provide,
for each month from January to August 2026, for Aberdeen Royal
Infirmary:
1. The number of ambulance attendances.
2. The average ambulance turnaround/handover time.
3. The number of attendances where turnaround/handover exceeded:
- 2 hours;
- 4 hours;
- 8 hours.
4. The longest recorded turnaround/handover time in each month.- Response
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 total conveyances to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for each month requested along with the average and maximum turnaround time for emergency vehicles at.
The second tab details the total number of conveyances to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for each month requested along with the total number of instances where the turnaround time exceeded 2 hours, 4 hours or 8 hours.
Where delays occurred, SAS and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary remained in contact to make sure patients' conditions were being monitored.
- Response Documents
