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Written question asked by Esther McVey (Conservative) on Tuesday, 12 November 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 14 November 2024. It was answered by Karin Smyth (Labour) on Thursday, 21 November 2024 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Cardiovascular Diseases: Emergency Calls

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to section 4.2 of NHS key statistics: England, HC 07281, published on 25 October 2024, (a) what assessment he has made of the causes of the increase in life threatening ambulance calls since Spring 2021 and (b) what percentage of the calls each month were cardiac related.

Answer

The rise in category 1 incidents reflects an increase in the proportion of patients’ ambulance services that have been determined to require an immediate face-to-face response. This may reflect a long-term trend of rising pressures on the health services from an increasing aging population, and complexity that comes with more patients with multiple comorbidities. Information on increases in ambulance service demand is published by NHS England. The total number of cardiac arrests that ambulance services responded to is published by month, however this information does not include other cardiac incidents, for example heart attack or angina, and the information is not disaggregated by incident category. The following table shows the total number of cardiac arrests each month from March 2021 to June 2024:

Month

Total cardiac arrests

March 2021

7,473

April 2021

6,982

May 2021

7,085

June 2021

6,944

July 2021

7,592

August 2021

7,135

September 2021

7,442

October 2021

8,307

November 2021

8,483

December 2021

9,227

January 2021

8,936

February 2021

7,466

March 2021

8,216

April 2022

8,043

May 2022

7,781

June 2022

7,407

July 2022

7,959

August 2022

7,408

September 2022

7,349

October 2022

8,118

November 2022

8,440

December 2022

11,988

January 2022

9,832

February 2022

7,682

March 2022

8,599

April 2023

8,049

May 2023

7,298

June 2023

6,921

July 2023

6,611

August 2023

6,753

September 2023

6,668

October 2023

7,941

November 2023

8,259

December 2023

9,554

January 2024

9,471

February 2024

8,045

March 2024

8,309

May 2024

7,544

June 2024

7,344

Source: The data is published by NHS England, and is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
13772
Session
2024-26
Related items
Ambulance Services: Emergency Calls
Thursday, 12 December 2024
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Emergency calls Statistics Cardiovascular diseases
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk