The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has welcomed yesterday’s publication of NHS England’s 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance (30 January 2025).
Managing Director of AACE, Anna Parry, said:
“The NHS ambulance sector welcomes the new NHSE 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance which contains some important implications for all ambulance services.
We are particularly pleased to see the inclusion of the 45-minute maximum hospital handover time which we know has had a positive impact over recent months in parts of the country where it has been implemented, and the reinstatement of the target of fifteen minutes for hospital handovers, which should always be the aspiration.
Additionally, we welcome the focus on improved access to urgent care services at home or in the community. This is imperative if the ambulance sector is to achieve optimal avoidable conveyance rates of patients to emergency departments. On that theme, ambulance services have made significant advancements this year in relation to increases in see-and-treat and hear-and-treat for patients and we support NHSE’s continued emphasis in this area. This facilitates the provision of the most appropriate care for patients, lessening some of the avoidable burden on emergency departments while ensuring ambulances are prioritised for those in greatest need.
We also support the maintenance of the 30-minute category two target (while maintaining the aspiration to ultimately return to the clinically-determined target of 18 minutes), however, we are acutely aware of the very significant challenge the 30-minute target poses for our members in the current financial climate, something that is exacerbated in some areas with local variation.
We are keen to understand more from NHSE about how the emergency ambulance services funding referenced in the planning guidance will be allocated as part of the planning round to support improvements in service delivery.
Finally, the ambulance sector fully supports NHSE’s proposed approach of applying learning from the best performing systems, something we endeavour to do and to facilitate through AACE in relation to urgent and emergency care delivery and more generally.”
