NHS ambulances are slower in the summer and winter
- Ambulances are slower when the temperature is below 2°C or rises above 20°C
- This is largely down to a higher volume of emergency calls, scientists believe
- Response times are also affected by ice and snow on the roads, a study found
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Ambulances respond slower to emergency incidents in the summer and winter, a study has found.
Emergency services are vulnerable to disruptions from both hot and cold weather – putting millions of lives at risk.
Researchers found slower times to reach patients in life-threatening situations when the temperature drops below 2°C or rises above 20°C.
This is largely down to a higher volume of calls requiring medical assistance during these bouts of weather, experts said.
It is believed that response times, which are crucial to maximise the chances of survival, are affected by both ice and snow on the roads.
Emergency services are vulnerable to disruptions from both hot and cold weather – putting millions of lives at risk, a study has found
While this could also contribute to an increase in fall requiring emergency assistance, the Birmingham University study suggests.
Hot weather has previously been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks – and the new findings back that belief up.
Lead author Dr Francis Pope recommended that weather forecasts are used to predict how many vehicles will be needed.
This would allow NHS bosses to better predict call-out rates to improve their response times, he said.
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Dr Pope added: ‘The weather impacts directly on day-to-day ambulance operations, while the climate contributes to the number of staff and vehicles required.
‘We recommend further research to allow ambulance planners to incorporate bespoke weather forecasts into planning systems.
‘There is evidence that heatwaves and coldwaves could increasingly cause increased demand and ambulance response time delays.’
In England, more than 10.7million calls were made to ambulance services in 2015/16, a 30 per cent rise in four years.
This is largely down to a higher volume of calls requiring medical assistance during these bouts of weather, experts said
NHS AMBULANCE RESPONSE TIMES
Calls to the ambulance service are prioritised into one of six different categories:
Red 1 (breathing difficulties, cardiac arrest): Response in eight minutes
Red 2 (serious but not the most life-threatening): Response in eight minutes
Green 1 (serious but not life-threatening): Response in 20 minutes
Green 2 (serious but not life-threatening): Response in 30 minutes
Green 3 (not considered serious): Telephone assessment within 20 minutes. Response within one hour
Green 4 (not considered serious): Telephone assessment within one hour
Source: North East Ambulance Service
On top of this, ambulance services are facing a recruitment crisis, with as many as one in ten paramedic roles vacant.
This is having a severe impact on ambulance response times, and many severely ill patients have been left waiting more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
The most serious calls – including cardiac arrests and breathing difficulties – are meant to get an ambulance within eight minutes.
Responses taking longer than this standard increase the risk of death, a host of previous research shows.
Ambulance services are fined if paramedics fail to reach 75 per cent of the most serious calls within eight minutes.
The new study was conducted in London, deemed to have the biggest demand of ambulances in Britain.
Currently the London Ambulance Service uses statistics based on how busy it was on the same day in previous years.
However, the weather is rarely the same on a particular day, or week, from year to year, researchers noted.
The research was presented at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna.
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