Ambulance response times have plunged to the worst on record with just two in five of the most urgent, life-threatening calls to 999 being responded to within the eight-minute target.
Figures from Stats Wales show that just 39.5% of red calls (calls deemed as immediately life-threatening, such as a cardiac arrest) were responded to within eight minutes in December. This was a significant drop of 8.5% from the previous month. Meanwhile the Welsh Ambulance Service received 5,865 red calls in December - one of the highest number ever made in a single month. Only April 2022 was higher with 10,674 red call outs.
The latest figures show that December 2022 was the lowest on record for ambulances attending the most life-threatening red calls even when compared to December 2020 which was at the height of the pandemic. A quarter of all red calls in December 2022 waited more than 16 minutes for an emergency response.
