Demand and activity
In January 2025, the ambulance service experienced a decrease in demand and activity compared to December 2024.
- The ambulance service answered 816,000 calls in January, equating to 26,300 per day, which is a decrease from 936,000 in December.
- 777,100 incidents were recorded, with 48.9% of incidents conveyed to an emergency department and 29.9% receiving a 'see and treat' intervention.
- Category 1 incidents (life-threatening injuries and illnesses) fell in January 2025 to 81,400, down by 12.2% from December and similar to last year. However, compared to before the pandemic, category 1 incidents are 34% higher.
- There were 401,200 category 2 incidents recorded in January, a decrease of 5% compared to the previous month. This figure is 1.5% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels.
In some parts of the country, ambulance trusts also provide NHS 111 services, now also supporting those experiencing a mental health crisis.
- In December 2024, 1.94 million calls were received by NHS 111, averaging 62,400 calls received per day. Of these, 1.82 million calls (94.2%) were answered.
- In December there were 14.4% more calls than November and 15% more than before the pandemic.
- Nearly 157,000 calls were made to NHS 111 'select mental health' option in December, which was introduced to streamline access to mental health support in England. Of these calls, 67% were answered, an average of 5,200 per day.
Response times
The current national ambulance response time targets are seven minutes for category 1 incidents and 30 minutes for category 2 incidents. In January 2025, performance against these targets showed improvements:
- Average response times have shortened this month, in line with the decrease in demand.
- The average response time for category 1 incidents was eight minutes and 16 seconds, decreasing by 24 seconds from December. This is lower than the previous two Januarys (figure 5) and the shortest time since August 2024.
- The average response time for category 2 incidents was 35 minutes and 40 seconds, a significant improvement of 11 minutes and 46 seconds from the month before.
- One region, the North East, met the seven-minute category 1 target again this month.
- Five trusts met the 30-minute target for category 2 response times in the latest month. However, regional variations persist, with two regions recording average response times of around 50 minutes.
FIGURE 5
Ambulance response times for category 1 incidents
Patient flow
Patient handover time from ambulance to hospital is an indicator of wider system pressures. Delays fell from December to January:
- There was a total of 421,600 ambulance handovers in January 2025, a decrease of 1.8% compared to the previous month.
- Of the number of handovers where the time is known, 71.3% took over 15 minutes. Just over a third of handovers were over 30 minutes and 14% took over 60 minutes.
While handover delays showed some improvement in January, they continue to highlight ongoing system-wide pressures. Ambulance services continue to encourage the public to use alternative options such as NHS 111, GP services or pharmacies if they are not experiencing a serious medical emergency so that clinicians can prioritise responding to the most seriously ill and injured patients.
In the winter section of this edition, more recent weekly handover data is available.