NHS England has announced that ambulances will now be expected to reach severely ill patients in an average time of seven minutes.
999 calls will now be put into four different categories according to their severity. These four categories will be people with life- threatening illnesses or injuries, emergency calls, urgent calls and less urgent calls. Fewer 999 ambulance calls will be classed as life-threatening and needing a very fast response.
The new system is backed by Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Stroke Association and the British Heart Foundation. They believe this shake up will save lives and remove ‘hidden’ and long waits suffered by millions of patients.
Hopefully this new system will refocus the service and help to save lives.
