Response Times
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- 1732/22
- Request Date
- 08 Nov 2022
- Response Date
- 30 Nov 2022
- Information Requested
I am looking for information regarding how many calls have waited exceptionally long
periods of time for an ambulance. As such, can I request the following for the
financial years 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 (most recent data):
1. The number of purple category incidents where the patient has waited a) over
30 minutes; b) over 45 minutes) and c) over 1 hour for an ambulance to
arrive?
2. The number of red category incidents where the patient has waited a) over 30
minutes; b) over 45 minutes) and c) over 1 hour for an ambulance to arrive?
3. The total number of incidents where patients have waited a) over 12 hours; b)
over 18 hours; c) over 24 hours; d) over 36 hours for an ambulance to arrive?- Response
Please note caution in the interpretation of the data provided. 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.
Please see table below showing emergency incidents attended with the longest response times between 01/04/2018 – 31/10/2022.
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.
- Response Documents
