Ambulances responding to 999 call outs in record time

Published on 21/08/2012 14:14

AMBULANCES are responding to 999 call outs in record time in Scotland, figures revealed.

The Scottish Ambulance Service responded to life threatening call outs in 6 minutes 42 seconds last year - 12 seconds faster than the previous year.

The service handled 630,000 emergency incidents between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 with paramedics treating almost 58,000 patients at the scene rather than taking them to hospital.

Health Secrtary Nicola Sturgeon praised the service for improving its reposnse times.

She said: “Our hardworking ambulance staff do a fantastic job and are now achieving their fastest average response times to life threatening emergencies – a great achievement.

“The ambulance service is performing very well. It’s a very, very important service that responds to calls from people who are often in life-threatening situations.

“It’s a very different service today to what it would have been some years ago when it just took people backwards and forwards to hospital. Today paramedics will treat people at home where that’s appropriate and refer patients to other parts of the NHS.

“It’s a much more integrated part of the overall NHS and that’s important as we try to ensure that people don’t get inappropriately admitted to hospital.”

David Garbutt, chairman of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “During the year we improved the average response time for life threatening emergencies in Scotland to 6.7 minutes from 6.9 minutes the previous year.

“We are responding faster than ever before to more very serious incidents than, despite the continued increase in demand for ambulances.”

The figures were revealed at the launch of Scotland’s first electric ambulance, a cleaner and greener mode of transport.

Built with a large plug socket under the bonnet, rather than a diesel engine, the vehicles can travel for around 100 miles on a five-hour charge. The ambulance have a top speed of 65mph and is much quieter than the more typical vehicle.