Yorskhire's Ambulance Response Times: How Long Will You Be Waiting?

The time it takes for an ambulance to reach you can mean life or death.

Based on data from the Ambulance Trusts (Jan–Oct 2018) we have compiled a list of urgent ambulance response times based on the postcode districts of Yorkshire.

How does your postcode measure up to the national average of 7m 41s?

Take a look…

Yorkshire’s Ambulance Response Times

Before we get going, let’s discuss what the data actually means.

Firstly, each response time is measured as the time taken for a trained person to reach a casualty on an urgent callout.

And, secondly, an urgent call out is classified as any of these cases below:

Cardiac Arrests
Stab Wounds
Major Blood Loss
Seizures
Casualties who can’t breathe or are having difficulty breathing
Women in the end stages of labour

With that out of the way, let’s move on to the all-important data.

BD Postcodes

Fastest – BD8 – 5m 29s

Slowest – BD24 – 10m 35s

Average – 7m 51s

DL Postcodes

Fastest – DL3 – 5m 7s

Slowest – DL11 (Low sample numbers) – 22m 41s

Average – 8m 57s

DN Postcodes

Fastest – DN2 – 5m 30s

Slowest – DN19 – 16m 47s

Average – 10m 0s

HU Postcodes

Fastest – HU1 – 5m 29s

Slowest – HU19 – 14m 16s

Average – 8m 19s

HG Postcodes

Fastest – HG2 – 5m 24s

Slowest – HG4 – 11m 58s

Average – 8m 15s

HX Postcodes

Fastest – HX1 – 5m 52s

Slowest – HX7 – 10m 41s

Average – 7m 55s

HD Postcodes

Fastest – HD1 – 6m 0s

Slowest – HD8 – 12m 21s

Average – 8m 20s

LS Postcodes

Fastest – LS2 – 4m 47s

Slowest – LS29 – 11m 42s

Average – 7m 44s

S Postcodes

Fastest – S3 – 6m 21s

Slowest – S17 – 11m 23s

Average – 8m 23s

WF Postcodes

Fastest – WF1 – 5m 34s

Slowest – WF11 – 8m 52s

Average – 8m 7s

YO Postcodes

Fastest – YO31 – 4m 23s

Slowest – YO61 – 15m 6s

Average – 9m 42s

Yorkshire Ambuance Response Time Analysis

So, how does Yorkshire compare to the national average?

England’s average ambulance response time was 7m 41s according to the BBC.

Whereas, Yorkshire’s average clocks in at 8m 35s, therefore meaning Yorkshire’s average ambulance response time exceeds the national average.

Within Yorkshire, the DL11 postcode district, which covers rural areas such as Reeth and Muker, experienced the longest average wait of 22m 14s.

However the sample of fewer than 50 callouts can be deemed as too small to draw reliable conclusions.

Conversely, the YO31 postcode region achieved the shortest response time of just 4m 23s.

Covering York city centre and York hospital provide a clue as to why the response time was so short.

What do these results mean to businesses and schools?

Consider the average response times for your area when deciding on the first aid provisions you require.

The longer the wait, the more beneficial it will be to have greater numbers of first aiders.

Why?

It is said that if CPR is administered immediately after a patient has suffered a cardiac arrest there is a 2/3 chance of survival. On the other hand, every minute that CPR isn’t being administered a casualty’s survival rate diminishes by 6-10%.

For this reason, there is a need for sufficient first aiders in the workplace.

However, activities such as CPR are very intense and hard to sustain for a prolonged period.

And, slower response times mean that CPR will need to be administered for longer.

So, if assistance is available, first aiders can alternate every couple of minutes to ensure CPR is carried out continuously until the emergency services arrive.

We can provide you with HSE and Ofsted compliant first aid training in the following courses:

The data in this article is taken from this BBC article. They have in turn received the data from the Ambulance Trusts.