Ambulances across the South West reached heart attack and stroke patients 38 minutes faster this winter — the best performance in years.

Average response times for the serious, time-critical conditions (category two) improved from 72 minutes to 34 minutes between 2023 and 2026 – despite a 22% increase in demand.

This is linked to clinicians working together to:

• find alternative care to help people avoid going to hospital unnecessarily.
• safely move patients into Emergency Departments within 45 minutes; and
• discharge patients effectively when they are ready to go home.

As a result, ambulances are being freed up to attend the next emergency call more quickly – and fewer patients are waiting in ambulances outside hospitals. The average handover time has decreased from 73 minutes in 2023 to an average of 34 minutes in 2026.

However, further improvements are still needed to meet the national target for category two response times and hospital handovers, and to eliminate care in hospital corridors and other non‑clinical spaces.

South West Medical Director, Dr Trevor Smith, said: “Because the South West is so rural and coastal, and has such an older population, it provides additional challenges to getting to people in a timely way and also in the levels of demand for care that we see.

“But every minute counts in an emergency, and I’m incredibly grateful to the thousands of paramedics, nurses, doctors and other staff who’ve made this improvement.

“The NHS is starting to turn a corner but there is still far more to do, and we are determined to eliminate delays altogether, including a zero-tolerance approach to corridor care.”

South Western Ambulance Service Chief Executive, Dr John Martin, said: “Demand for our services remains high, and we are steadfast in our commitment to ensuring every patient receives the most appropriate and timely care possible.

“We continue to strengthen our remote clinical support within our Emergency Operations Centres, by assessing 999 calls to determine the best response for patients. This ensures patients receive the most appropriate care for them and it also helps keep our ambulances available for those in urgent and life-threatening situations.

“Improvements to ambulance handovers have gone hand in hand with efforts from our crews to reduce clinically avoidable conveyances to Emergency Departments, through optimising community services and arranging care packages for patients closer to home, especially for frail and older patients wherever possible.”

Care coordination hubs now give clinicians one number to call to arrange the right care quickly — whether that’s: a home visit from community nurses, same‑day emergency care without going through A&E or a mobile x‑ray at home after a fall.

Gloucestershire has been one of the local areas at the forefront of reducing hospital handover delays. For winter 25/26, Gloucestershire planned early and worked as one system to manage pressure and keep patients safe.

Predictive and real‑time data helped teams prepare for flu, norovirus and staff sickness, and flex capacity where it was needed most. This meant quicker access to the right care, smarter communications on seasonal illness, and vaccination rates well above the national average when flu hit early.

Shane Devlin, Cluster Chief Executive for NHS Gloucestershire ICB said: “This winter has highlighted the strength of Gloucestershire’s health and care system, driven by an early and joined‑up approach to planning and the exceptional effort shown by teams across primary, community, hospital and emergency care, as well as our voluntary and community partners and colleagues in social care.

“The dedication shown by staff across the county during a period of significant pressure helped ensure thousands of local residents received safe, timely and compassionate care when it mattered most.”

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive, Kevin McNamara, said: “Every minute matters when someone needs urgent help. Thanks to exceptional teamwork, we’re getting patients safely off ambulances and into the Emergency Department quicker, meaning ambulances are being released back out on the road to attend other emergency calls within the community, rather than being held at the hospital.

“I’m proud of what our staff have achieved in sustaining these improvements during a very challenging winter, and we remain focused on improving safety and care for patients”

“Despite an increase in demand at times, we have worked hard to stop corridor care across all our inpatient wards since July 2024 and, are working to eliminate it in our ED at our busiest times and we are determined to continue delivering improvements across all our services”