Ambulance
Ambulance services are at the heart of the urgent and emergency care system
In 2017 the NHS introduced new ambulance standards to ensure the best, most appropriate response is provided for each patient first time.
Our aim is that all ambulance services:
- Meet all targets and deliver all patient outcomes;
- Are efficient and effective;
- Have a satisfied, happy and productive workforce;
- Are integrated into the wider urgent and emergency care system;
- Are digitally fit for the future.
Ambulance services are changing to work in different ways. This means patients are treated by skilled paramedics in their own home, given advice over the telephone or taken to a more appropriate setting outside hospital. You can watch our short film on some of the ways in which ambulance services have changed to respond to different incidents.
But there is always more to do. We continue to support commissioners and ambulance services to make a series of improvements, including:
- Delivering a safe reduction in ambulance conveyance, which means that patients are only taken to hospital if that’s the right place for them;
- Making sure that no one arriving by ambulance should wait more than 30 minutes from arrival to handover to a clinician at hospital;
- Supporting ambulance services to meet response time standards, as set out in the Ambulance Quality Indicators;
- Development of an Ambulance data set so we can better understand and support improved delivery of patient care, and identify opportunities for system improvement;
- Implementation of the Lord Carter recommendations, following his review into ambulance services.