Ambulance wait time targets for urgent cases not met in South Yorkshire UK News

The figure, which was released by NHS England, shows wait times are two minutes and 33 seconds above the NHS response time target of seven minutes.

Compared to previous years, current waiting times are the longest.

The average wait time in 2021 was nine minutes and 16 seconds. In 2020, it was seven minutes and 38 seconds.

Meanwhile, the wait time in 2019 was seven minutes and 12 seconds, nine seconds less than the previous year.

Nationally, ambulance services are falling short of critical response time targets, with response times for life-threatening conditions (Category 1) not meeting target for nearly a year, while emergency response times (category 2) have not met the target since March last year.

It has been reported that paramedics are facing more life-threatening incidents such as heart attacks (known as Category 1 calls) than in previous years.

In April this year, these types of calls were at the highest level for the same month since 2018, when current records began, at over 76,500.

They accounted for 14% of all incidents, compared to 9% in the same month in previous years.

There were nearly 20,000 more life-threatening incidents recorded last month compared to April 2021, and more than 26,000 more than at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020.

Last year (2021-2022), most incidents were related to emergency incidents (category 2), such as stroke or chest pain, which accounted for 66% of incidents.

The second most common reason was urgent help (category 3), such as a burn, and accounted for 21% of incidents. Life-threatening category calls accounted for 12% of incidents, while 1% of calls were for non-emergency treatment (category 4).

The data also revealed that people in need of medical attention waited an average of 32 seconds for their 999 call to be answered last year, six times longer than the year before, when the average response time was five seconds.

There were also 10.6 million calls answered last year, up 32% from the previous year.

Last month (April), there were 860,000 calls (up 25% from April 2021) answered in an average of 28 seconds.

The analysis comes after health bosses openly expressed concern over dangerously long wait times for ambulances across the country.

The data further revealed that the South West Ambulance Service had the longest wait times in England for life-threatening (Grade 1) conditions, taking an average of 11 minutes and 45 seconds.

The second worst ambulance service was the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service, which took 10 minutes 58 seconds to respond, followed by the East of England Ambulance Service at 10 minutes 17 seconds.

The London Ambulance Service had the fastest response times in England at six minutes 40 seconds, followed by the North East Ambulance Service at seven minutes 16 seconds.