1. Will the First Minister make a statement on ambulance response times? OAQ52627

The Welsh ambulance service continues to exceed the national target to respond to immediately life-threatening or red calls within eight minutes. In August, 74.4 per cent of red calls received a response within eight minutes, with a median response time of just over five minutes.

Thank you for your answer, First Minister. Back in March, I questioned the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services on ambulance response times in Powys, following delays in the time it takes for an ambulance to arrive following a 999 call. This has been partly attributed to ambulances waiting outside hospitals to transfer patients into the care of hospital staff. In a letter to me on 24 July, the chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust confirmed that the average ambulance handover times for January to June of this year was nine minutes for Telford, 26 minutes for Shrewsbury, and a shocking one hour and two minutes for Wrexham Maelor. I would be grateful if you could provide details about what you're doing to improve the handover time at Wrexham Maelor, which, of course, is under the direct control of Welsh Government, to prevent further delays to ambulance response times for the residents of Montgomeryshire.

Well, there are obviously issues in the English hospitals as well, and there will be times when demand is particularly acute. What I can tell him, though, is that, in terms of Powys, in August, 71.2 per cent of red calls received the response within eight minutes—that's above the national target of 65 per cent for the fourth consecutive month. The typical response time for that type of call was around four minutes and eight seconds—the fastest typical response time in Wales that month. And, finally, whilst no formal time target is in place for amber calls, the typical response for an amber call in Powys was 20 minutes and 17 seconds, in January, again, better than the national average of 24 minutes and 19 seconds.

We usually talk about ambulance responses to people who have physical ailments, but there are people who have mental health issues too, and we don't have specific teams that respond to mental health calls. Now, in Sweden—in Stockholm, particularly—because of the high number of suicides, there is a special team that has been established, which is a psychiatric emergency response team. Given the need for emergency response to people with acute mental health problems or those at risk of suicide, would you as First Minister agree that the ambulance service in Wales should be looking at the possibility of creating an emergency or rapid mental health team in Wales?

It's an interesting idea. We have focused on child and adolescent mental health services—and that doesn't, of course, include adults. But, when a person is in a mental health crisis, they don't tend to think of ambulances or hospitals as the first port of call. But that is an interesting concept that is worth looking at, and I will ask the Cabinet Secretary to respond in writing to the Member.

First Minister, there has been a massive increase in demand for ambulances—up around 128 per cent over the last two decades. But the new clinical response model is supposed to ensure that those in the most need get the fastest response—be that a fully crewed ambulance or a rapid-response paramedic. However, last year, 16 per cent of red calls took longer than 10 minutes and 68 people waited more than half an hour for an emergency response. So, First Minister, do you agree that this is unacceptable, and will you outline the actions your Government will take to reduce the number of red calls taking more than 10 minutes and eliminate the number of calls taking over half an hour to respond? Thank you.

Well, I'd be very disappointed if calls took over half an hour to respond to on a red call. As far as red calls are concerned, we are well above target. It's not 100 per cent—I understand that—but we're well above target in terms of ambulances reaching people when they are needed. There has been an issue that's been raised in terms of amber calls, of course. There are some patients who continue to wait longer than we would expect, and I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services has commissioned the chief ambulance services commissioner to look at the amber category, to conduct a clinically led review of the amber category. That does include serious but not life-threatening calls—around about almost two thirds of the call volume, actually, of the Welsh ambulance service. I know that that Cabinet Secretary will update Members over the course of the next few weeks.