Haverhill councillors call for improvements to ambulance provision after figures reveal waits of double the national target

Ambulances are taking twice as long as they should to reach patients in life-threatening situations in Haverhill, a situation condemned as ‘unacceptable’.

NHS figures reviewed by Haverhill Town Councillors Alan Stinchcombe and Tony Brown - both members of the council’s ambulance subgroup - show that over the last 12 months, Cambridge’s average C1 response time was 7.3 minutes, very close to the national target of 7 minutes, but Haverhill’s was 14.7 minutes, double that of Cambridge’s.

Category 1 (C1) calls, are those for life-threatening injuries and illnesses that require immediate intervention or resuscitation.

Cllr Brown said: “EEAST (East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust) used to station a rapid response vehicle (RRV) crewed by a paramedic on round-the-clock standby in Haverhill and reserved or ‘tethered’ for C1 calls.

“EEAST has withdrawn this provision twice and C1 response times in the Haverhill area have risen dramatically each time.

“As a result of the withdrawal at the beginning of 2022, Haverhill’s average wait relative to that of EEAST as a whole increased from 18 per cent more in 2021 to 43 per cent more in 2022.

“As there was nothing left to withdraw, there’s no obvious explanation for the further increase in Haverhill’s average wait to over 60 per cent more than EEAST’s in both 2023 and this year so far.

“It’s unacceptable that a population of about 30,000 in the Haverhill area, relatively far from an A&E department, has to wait longer than twice the national target for a response to a C1 call.

“Haverhill needs its tethered ambulance vehicle back.”

Cllr Stinchcombe said: “Cllr Brown and I decided to look at response time data for Cambridge because Haverhill is part of EEAST’s South Cambridgeshire operational group and EEAST usually dispatches ambulances starting their shifts in Haverhill towards Cambridge.

“Now we can see that not tethering a single ambulance in Haverhill keeps Cambridge’s C1 response times close to the national target at Haverhill’s expense.

“Just as both police and fire and rescue services have stations in the town, ever since Haverhill Ambulance Station was built over 60 years ago, its whole purpose has been to preposition at least one ambulance ready to deal with a C1 call.

“Since the withdrawal of RRV cover in January 2022, an ambulance is often dispatched to Haverhill from Addenbrooke’s, with a ‘blue light’ response time that’s usually more than 20 minutes.

“The NHS also publishes the C1 90th percentile response time, which is the time by which 90 per cent of C1 calls have been responded to.

“The national target for this is 15 minutes but, averaged over the last 12 months, Haverhill’s has been 26.0 minutes, well over twice Cambridge’s 12.1 minutes.

“This simply isn’t fair to a patient requiring a C1 response in the Haverhill area.”

The town council’s ambulance subgroup visited EEAST’s Emergency Operation Centre in Norwich earlier this year.

Cllrs Brown and Stinchcombe said that the subgroup understands that there is currently an enormous mismatch between demand and availability of ambulances, partly because ambulances are frequently waiting to hand over patients at hospitals, but this means that an ambulance rarely becomes free to stand by in Haverhill.

The two councillors are now looking forward to an expected meeting of the subgroup with officers of EEAST and SNEEICB (Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board).

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We understand the concerns that the Haverhill town councillors have over response times.

“We have ambulances that start and finish at Haverhill, but they can be required to respond to time-critical patients outside of the town if they are the closest available vehicle.

“As an ambulance service we must prioritise patients based on clinical need rather than geographical location.

“This does mean that calls in Haverhill are often responded to by crews from Addenbrooke’s Hospital or West Suffolk Hospital. This can increase our response times in Haverhill compared with places closer to those hospitals.

“We are working hard to improve our response times in Haverhill and across the region. This work includes increasing the number of frontline clinicians, clinical cover in our control rooms and collaborative partnership working.”