Demand and activity
Demand and activity increased for the ambulance service in December:
- The ambulance service answered 935,950 calls in December 2024. This equates to over 30,000 per day, an increase from November.
- 806,405 incidents were recorded, with 48.2% of incidents conveyed to an emergency department and 29.7% receiving a ‘see and treat’ intervention.
- Category 1 incidents (life-threatening injuries and illnesses) rose for the fourth consecutive month in December 2024 to 92,688, up by 10% from November. Compared to a year ago, category 1 incidents are up by 5.7% and are 32% higher than five years ago, before the pandemic.
- There were 422,373 category 2 incidents recorded in December, an increase of 6.7% compared to the previous month. This figure is up by 2.8% compared to a year ago, but down by 5.7% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
In some parts of the country, ambulance trusts also provide NHS 111 services, which now also provides support for those experiencing a mental health crisis:
- In November 2024, 1.69 million calls were received by NHS 111, equating to 56,279 calls received per day in November. Of these, 1.59 million calls (95%) were answered, 3% more calls than October, 4% more calls than a year ago and 19.2% more than before the pandemic.
- New data published this month shows that nearly 150,000 calls were made to NHS 111 ‘select mental health’ option, which was introduced to streamline access to mental health support in England. Of these calls, 68.3% were answered, an average of 5,120 per day.
Response times
The national ambulance response time targets are seven minutes for category 1 incidents and 18 minutes for category 2 incidents. As part of the plan to recover urgent and emergency care, NHS England adjusted the category 2 target to 30 minutes. Performance against both targets slipped this month:
- The average response time for category 1 incidents was 8 minutes 40 seconds, increasing by two seconds.
- The average response time for category 2 incidents was 47 minutes and 26 seconds, the slowest time in 2024 by five minutes
- One region, the North East, met the 7-minute category 1 target this month. Two regions with the longest average response times were close to 10 minutes.
- The service on the Isle of Wight met the 30-minute target for category 2 response times, with another two regions being a few minutes away. However, two regions recorded average response times of over one hour, showing the stark variation by region.
As expected, increased demand has had a knock-on impact, lengthening average response times.
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 increased from November to December:
- There was a total of 429,314 ambulance handovers in December 2024, a decrease of 3.9% compared to the previous month.
- Of the number of handovers where the time is known (408,899), 72% took over 15 minutes.
- More than a third of handovers (36.7%) were over 30 minutes and 16.2% took over 60 minutes.
In the winter section of this edition, more recent weekly handover data is available. Handover delays continue to be a symptom of system wide pressures. Ambulance services are urging 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.