Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:33 pm on 25 September 2018.
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.