3. Will the First Minister make a statement on ambulance response times? OAQ54197

I thank the Member for that. The Welsh ambulance service has now exceeded its target response time for red calls for 14 consecutive months, with a typical response time of around five and a half minutes. We continue to work closely with the chief ambulance commissioner, LHBs and the Welsh ambulance service to achieve further improvement.

Thank you for your answer, First Minister. In the eight years that I've been an Assembly Member, it's the last couple of years that my office and I have received the most significant concerns in regards to slow ambulance response times. In a letter to me last year, the chief executive of the Welsh ambulance service confirmed for my constituents that the average ambulance handover time was nine minutes for Telford, 26 minutes for Shrewsbury, and one hour and two minutes for Wrexham Maelor. Now, clearly, handover times are a significant factor in ambulance response times. Now, I have received some reports that Welsh ambulance crews are repeatedly being held at Shrewsbury and Telford for longer periods of time while English crews are released after a set target time because the English ambulance service cross-charges hospitals for looking after their patients in excess of this time. So, I would be grateful if you could investigate this particular issue and consider if such measures should, or indeed could, be put in place for Welsh crews and Welsh patients.

Well, I thank the Member for that point. He will know that ambulance response times in Powys are generally amongst the best in Wales. Last year in Powys, the standard waiting time for a red call was four minutes 37 seconds and amber calls were the best in response times in the whole of Wales. But he makes an important point about handover times and work is going on very purposefully through the chief ambulance commissioner to improve handover times in those Welsh hospitals where that has been a cause of concern. I wasn't aware of the point that the Member raised about Shrewsbury and Telford. Of course, my colleague the health Minister will investigate that and provide him with an answer.FootnoteLink

Information further to Plenary

First Minister, last month, over 10,000 people waited more than 30 minutes for an ambulance response to an amber call. Two weeks ago, a friend of mine, a constituent, waited almost three hours for an emergency response following a suspected stroke. I'm sure you'll agree with me that this is unacceptable. First Minister, when can the people of Wales expect to see an end to waits of more than 30 minutes for an ambulance or emergency response?

Well, Llywydd, the all-Wales amber standard response is actually 26 minutes and 42 seconds. We have a plan following a report into amber waits. It made nine specific recommendations and there is now an implementation plan to take all of those recommendations forward. There is a particular focus on stroke because stroke patients depend not simply on speed of response but they depend on the nature of the response that is made both in the ambulance and then with the handover, based on what the ambulance staff have been able to do, so that that can be built on rapidly when patients arrive at their destination. So, I take seriously the point the Member has made about waits when people have had a stroke, but it is recognised in the report that was commissioned into amber calls, and there are particular actions that are being developed to make sure that stroke sufferers in Wales have both a timely response through the ambulance service but also a response that is equipped to deliver the immediate response that we know makes a significant difference to their long-term prospects of recovery.