EMAS making progress but still fall short of response times target
EMAS’ performance figures for 2014/2015 show the service is now reaching more 999 calls within the eight minute target time than in previous years.
But the service is still falling short of hitting Government targets.
Commenting on the figures, Sue Noyes, who was appointed substantive Chief Executive last month, said: “I am very proud of the excellent work of our staff, volunteers and our partners, it’s clear we are an improving service and our performance results are proof of the progress made.
“Whilst frontline staff deal with 999 calls day in and day out and know how important it is to arrive as fast as possible, they’re always reminding us that the quality of clinical care they provide is as important as how quickly they arrive.
“During 2014/15, EMAS was one of the top performing services for our response to a type of heart attack caused by a prolonged blockage of blood supply to the heart.
“We successfully provided high quality clinical care at the scene and then ensured the majority of patients arrived at a specialist cardiac unit within 150 minutes of us receiving the initial call for help.
“This is just one example of how the clinical skills of our staff save lives. They’re all dedicated, highly trained and experienced practitioners, even though on some occasions, they’re not able to arrive within the eight minute target time due to challenges such as the distance they have to travel, traffic jams and bad weather
“Despite these challenges, we’re now only seconds away from achieving the time standards. If the target arrival time was eight minutes and 30 seconds, we would have hit the standard in 2014/2015.
“We still have big challenges to face but have strong plans in place to address them. For example, we are currently recruiting and training 200 more frontline staff and investing 3.9million pounds in our fleet. Both of these actions will allow us to respond to emergencies faster.
“Together with the continued backing of our commissioners and stakeholders, and the support and tremendous hard work of all our colleagues, I’m confident EMAS will continue to move in the right direction.
“Thank you to our staff and volunteers for their continued support and for providing the best possible care to our patients across the East Midlands.”
During 2014/2015, EMAS achieved a response rate of 71.61% Red1 and 70.20% Red2 (response within eight minutes) and 92.80% (support vehicle within 19 minutes) across the East Midlands.
During December and January EMAS saw an increase of 22% in the number of emergency calls compared to last year – almost 200 extra calls each day.
