News / Demand hits ambulance services

 
Ambulance services across England are struggling to cope with rising demand for urgent and emergency services, the National Audit Office said.

In a report, NHS ambulance services, the auditors said new models of care, such as resolving calls over the phone, had helped. But signs of stress remained, including weakening response time performance – in 2015/16 only one ambulance trust met all three targets.

But there was a consensus that commissioners, regulators and providers placed too much importance on response times and this could be undermining efficiency.

For example, in most cases there was no clinical benefit from ambulances arriving within eight minutes in Red 2 calls (the second most urgent call). However, this target had led to potential inefficiencies, such as sending multiple ambulances and standing down those that do not arrive first.

Delays in transfer of care at A&E departments were also hampering efficiency, with around 500,000 ambulance hours lost because turnaround took longer than the expected 30 minutes.

NAO head Amyas Morse (above) said ambulance service efficiency depended largely on other parts of the health system. ‘Until clinical commissioning groups see ambulance services as an integral part of that system it is difficult to see how they will become sustainable and secure consistent value for money.’