Ambulance Quality Indicators

This contains background material for the Ambulance Systems Indicators (AmbSYS) and Clinical Outcomes (AmbCO) for all eleven Ambulance Services in England.

The following webpages are / were updated monthly, with the latest Statistical Notes and monthly spreadsheets:

Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2023-24
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2022-23
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2021-22
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2020-21
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2019-20
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2018-19
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2017-18
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2016-17
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2015-16
Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2014-15

Time Series Data
In the following interactive spreadsheets, you can select whether to view data for all England, an individual NHS Ambulance Service, or a region.
AmbSYS Time Series to February 2024 (xlsx, 2,475KB) (published on 14 March 2024): AmbSYS from August 2017 to the latest published month, against specification 20230825 below.
AmbCO Time Series to October 2023 (xlsx, 1,477KB) (published on 14 March 2024): AmbCO from April 2011 to the latest published month, against specifications v1.31 and 20210610 below.

CSV Data
These comma-separated value (csv) files have the same data as the above spreadsheets, but they have no formatting, and none of the footnotes that advise where there are breaks in the Time Series:
AmbSYS August 2017 to February 2024 (csv, 972KB) (published on 14 March 2024)
AmbCO April 2011 to October 2023 (csv, 521KB) (published on 14 March 2024)

Timetable
This shows publication dates (including for revisions) and due dates for data collection.
2023-24 AQI Publication Timetable (pdf, 30KB) (published on 2 May 2023)

Current data specification
The following documents contain the specification guidance for data suppliers on what NHS England require.
20230825 AmbSYS specification (pdf, 465KB) for AmbSYS data from 1 October 2023 onwards (published on 25 August 2023)
20220725 AmbSYS specification (pdf, 417KB) for AmbSYS data up to 30 September 2023 (published on 25 July 2022)
20210610 AmbCO data specification (pdf, 291KB) for AmbCO data (published on 10 June 2021)
20230825 AmbSYS AmbCO indicator list (xlsx, 29KB) for AmbSYS and AmbCO data (published on 25 September 2023)

Superseded data specifications
20190912 AmbSYS specification (pdf, 389KB) for AmbSYS data from June 2018 to September 2022
20170926 AmbSYS specification (docx, 70KB) for AmbSYS data from autumn 2017 to June 2018
AmbSYS and AmbCO together:
AQI Guidance v1.31 (docx, 173KB): up to January 2016
AQI Guidance v1.4 (docx, 202KB): from January 2016 to autumn 2017
AQI Guidance v3.0 (docx, 113KB): for the three Trusts that used Categories C1 to C4 from October 2016 to autumn 2017
Clinical Outcomes definitions are unchanged in the above three documents.
20180412 STEMI and stroke timeliness specification (pdf, 149KB): additional STEMI and Stroke AmbCO from November 2017

Standards
The government pledges on Ambulance waiting times are in the Handbook to the NHS Constitution.
The categories used by Ambulance Services to prioritise emergency incidents are within the description of the Ambulance Response Programme.

Supporting information
Hospital handovers from the Daily Ambulance Collection supplied by Ambulance Trusts and split by NHS Trust. Ambulance: Management Information

This Statement describes the quality of the statistics, along with a revisions policy, and information on user engagement:
AQI Quality Statement v1.2 (pdf, 356KB)

Old AmbSYS Time Series to March 2018 (xlsx, 658KB) (published on 10 May 2018): AmbSYS from April 2011, against specifications v1.31 and v1.4 above.
Also available as a CSV, without formatting or footnotes: Old AmbSYS April 2011 to March 2018 (csv, 211KB) (published on 10 May 2018).
Also available in an alternative presentation including AmbCO data, a map, call process flowchart, and embedded PDF narrative, but only up to March 2016 data:
ACQI Dashboard April 2011 to March 2016 (xls, 5,967KB)

The Ambulance Services publication by the Health and Social Care Information Centre contains statistics from the KA34 data collection 2004-05 to 2012-13, which are similar but not directly comparable with the AmbSYS data. It also contains AmbSYS data for 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Weekly Category A response times from 7 November 2010 to 29 May 2011 are still available on an archive website: Ambulance Weekly Sitreps.

Rest of UK
Wales ambulance systems indicators from the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee.
Scotland ambulance data in Quality Improvement Indicators documents from the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Northern Ireland ambulance data in Emergency Care statistics from the NI Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

Contact Details
For press enquiries, please contact the NHS England press office on 0113 825 0958 or nhsengland.media@nhs.net.

The person responsible for these data is:
Ian Kay, Operational Insights, Transformation Directorate, NHS England
england.nhsdata@nhs.net
0113 825 4606