1 day Ago
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation (SECAmb) has consistently exceeded a crucial response time target for its most seriously ill and injured patients. SECAmb was among a minority of ambulance trusts to surpass the Category 2 call performance target over the past 12 months, from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. The yearly average response time stood at 28 minutes and 49 seconds.
This achievement comes despite a nearly 40,000 rise in 999 calls compared to the previous year. Category 2 includes emergency calls such as suspected strokes and heart attacks and represents about two-thirds of SECAmb's total calls. Under national improvement plans, ambulance services are commissioned to respond to Category 2 calls in an average of less than 30 minutes.
SECAmb said it acknowledges the need to improve response times across all call categories. The trust said it is committed to enhancing its operations to ensure all patients receive the most appropriate care. During the past year, SECAmb has introduced several initiatives to manage the demand on its services and ensure patients receive the right response quickly.
These initiatives include the establishment of five new multi-discipline clinical hubs. The Unscheduled Care Navigation Hubs (UCNHs) are made up of SECAmb's skilled clinicians, who are joined by specialist teams from across local healthcare systems, to ensure 999 calls receive the most appropriate response. These new hubs complement SECAmb's existing urgent care hubs where the trust's Advance Paramedic Practitioners (APPs) provide support and advice to ambulance crews.
SECAmb chief executive Simon Weldon said: "We delivered a really consistent Category 2 response time performance across the past 12 months. "This is a challenging category for all ambulance services as it is where a majority of our calls fall. "Teams right across our organisation are responsible for ensuring we exceeded this target.
"They should all be very proud and I would like to thank all our staff and volunteers for their work in achieving this target." The hubs are part of SECAmb's efforts to improve its 'Hear and Treat' rate, which is the number of calls handled with advice over the phone or via referral to another service, rather than receiving a face-to-face ambulance response. The rate has increased to more than 15.
6 per cent, over 5 per cent up since 2023. Mr Weldon added: "We are very aware that there remains much to do to ensure we continue to make improvements across all categories of call. "Measures that we have implemented, including the introduction of more of our multi-discipline clinical hubs, are proving beneficial for patients.
"I would also like to thank all our partners across the health system for their support in helping us to maintain good hospital handover performance.".
