A statement from Tracy Myhill, Chief Executive and Dr Brendan Lloyd, Medical Director of the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust
The way we’re measuring ambulance services in Wales is changing.
Since 1974 our ambulance service has been measured by the time it takes to reach emergency calls. A lot has changed since 1974, but the way we are measured has not.
The ambulance service of today provides much more sophisticated clinical care, yet the focus is still on how many ambulances arrive at calls within eight minutes regardless of the clinical outcome.
That’s why, for a one-year pilot period, we’re moving away from time-based targets to look more at the quality of what we do for you once we arrive.
Don’t worry – if you’re suffering with a life-threatening stroke, heart attack or you’re not breathing, we’ll still send the nearest available resource as fast as possible.
But for less serious conditions, we’re going to be measured on how well we treat you and how often we manage to avert a trip to hospital by referring you to the most appropriate clinical setting.
Here our Head of Clinical Services, Richard Lee, talks about the new clinical model in a nutshell.
The role of the ambulance service is to deliver a range of clinical services.
Some of these are delivered over the telephone and some of these are delivered by people coming to see you face-to-face.
The new clinical model introduces new ways in which callers to 999 are assessed to ensure they are receiving the most appropriate care and response to suit their needs.
The changes will clearly identify those patients who require an immediate life-saving response, and these patients will receive the highest priority response in the fastest time possible.
All other patients will receive a bespoke clinical response based on their condition rather than a generic response based solely on a time standard.
These changes should improve patient experience as well as improve patient flow through hospitals.The changes will begin on 1 October 2015.
Here Richard talks in more detail about what the clinical model means for our patients.
These changes have the patient at the very centre.
It’s very important that as the public of Wales you have confidence in us as your national ambulance service.
As part of this new clinical model, you’ll be able to see how we’re doing in treating you, by looking at a series of clinical outcome indicators.
This will be easy to understand information and will allow you to judge the quality of the service we are providing in your community.
More information about where you can view data about our performance will be shared closer to October.
Got a question? Check out this Frequently Asked Questions document.
Click here to read a letter from our Medical Director, Dr Brendan Lloyd, to Welsh Government about the new clinical model.
Click on the below to hear a cardiac arrest survivor Annette Sexton talk about her experience at the hands of the Welsh Ambulance Service.
