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Ambulance Service Indicators

Understanding Ambulance Service Performance

We publish monthly updates on how the ambulance service in Wales is performing. Our interactive dashboard explains the 5-Step Ambulance Model, giving you a clear picture of how services work and how the ambulance service responds.

The 5 Steps of Ambulance Care

Step 1: Help me choose

See how NHS 111 Wales and the Ambulance Service support you in making the right choice when you’re unwell, whether through the telephone service or website.

Step 2: Answer my call
Find out how 999 and 111 calls are received, how they’re assessed, and what happens next.

Step 3: Come to see me
Understand how incidents are categorised and how response times vary across Health Boards.

Step 4: Give me treatment
Explore how patients are treated at the scene — including care for cardiac arrest, stroke, and sepsis — and when hospital transport isn’t needed.

Step 5: Take me to hospital
See how and where patients are taken to hospital, and how handovers are managed once they arrive.

👉 Tip: Use the dashboard’s full-screen option (arrow icon, bottom-right) and navigate through steps using the left and right arrows.

What’s New in 2025?

From 1 July 2025, ambulance responses in Wales changed to ensure the sickest patients are seen fastest.

  • Purple Arrest calls (cardiac or respiratory arrest) .
  • Other urgent calls are quickly reviewed by a Paramedic or Nurse to decide the most appropriate help

⏱️ Performance expectation:

  • The primary indicator is the Return of Spontaneous Circulation rate, which helps demonstrate the outcomes that the ambulance services is delivering.
  • You will also see for the first time the time it takes for CPR to be started and a defibrillator to arrive.  
  • Welsh Government has set a range for responding in an average of 6–8 minutes for Purple and Red calls.

💡 For you, this means:

  • If there’s an immediate threat to life, you’ll get the fastest possible ambulance service response.
  • If your call is urgent but not life-threatening, a clinician will review your case to make sure you get the right care for your needs.

Using the Dashboard

  • Choose your view: Wales-wide or by Health Board.
  • Export data: Download Wales-level or Health Board datasets, with metadata and indicator guides.
  • Read more: Each monthly release also includes a narrative overview for context.

Important Data Notes

  • In April 2024, a new NHS 111 system was introduced. Some metrics are still being developed and validated.
  • A technical issue affects the aggregation of NHS 111 calls at Health Board level; this is being fixed.
  • Until validation of June 2025 data is complete, Ambulance Quality Indicators (AQIs) using 111 data are not published here.
  • ⚠️ Data comparability: Figures from October 2015 – June 2025 cannot be directly compared with data from July 2025 onwards due to changes in the clinical response model.
  • November 2025 data - Due to recent changes in the Welsh Ambulance Quality performance framework, data for historic Amber category will begin to be published against the new categories of Orange now, Yellow soon and Green planned in due course, and once this data becomes available

Why we share this

Since October 2015, we’ve published these reports to give everyone in Wales a transparent view of how ambulance services are performing.

Our goal is to help you understand how emergency care works, where it’s improving, and where challenges remain.

Publication Notice

The new Ambulance Service Indicators came into effect on 1 July 2025, replacing the previous Ambulance Quality Indicators. These changes align with updates to the Clinical Response Model, and as a result, the new measures cannot be directly compared with the previous dataset.

From this point forward, the former Ambulance Quality Indicators will no longer be updated and have been superseded by the new Ambulance Service Indicators download below along with historical data.

Accessing Underlying Data: For a deeper dive into the data, you can export the full bilingual dataset. We've also produced a useful narrative document and metadata.

Accessing pre July 2025 Data: You can export the historical datasets for the period prior to July 2025 at either a Wales-level or Local Health Board-level.

There were 36 RED calls taken during the Clinical Response Model change, these calls are not included in the overall dataset but had a median response time of: 00:07:26.

EMERG Clinical Indicators

EMERG Clinical Indicators came into effect in October 2025.

December 2025

The recent changes in the Welsh Ambulance Quality Performance Management Framework  to the Call Categories for Phase 2 of Orange Now, Yellow Soon and Green Planned, from Amber 1 and Amber 2 categories, mean data for the 1st December Amber and Green totals reported for the 36 hour period are 1,287.  This reflects the period from switch over to new categories on the 2nd December 2025, to updated data for the period from 2nd -31st December which shows against the new category’s in December’s updated Ambulance Service indicators (ASI’s).

ASI April & May 2026.

As of the 21st April 2026, due to the process changes applied for remote clinical assessment, this has meant amends to how the ASI’s flow, changes advised below;  

AS1 and AS4 As a result, the NHS111 count decreases, while the NHS999 count will increase.                                                                                                                                  ASI2 and ASI5i have also been updated as some values have changed slightly since submission.

Additionally, the process has changed for calls where a caller has dropped out before the call was able to be assigned a priority by the system. Since the change, the default priority is RCS1 and they receive an Orange Now response, resulting in an increase in calls.

As a result of these process changes, caution should be exercised when interpreting trends by Nature of Incident, particularly when comparing data before and after 21 April.

Further review of the ASI’s will take place and these amends will also be communicated to reflect these changes  in the near future.

 

The next scheduled refresh is Thursday August 20 2026 at 09:30am

Access Emergency Ambulance Service Data with StatsWales

StatsWales, a free service provided by the Welsh Government, offers users the opportunity to explore, analyse, and download tables of data specific to Wales.