The pilot project, using ambulance cars, is set to begin in London in May. The LAS said the trained volunteers would be sent to lower-class 999 calls where the patient needed help to get to the hospital. The plan will focus on people who fall into the “category three”, where they need an answer within two hours and need extra help due to mobility problems. Third-class calls may include late stages of labor, abdominal pain, and diabetes, where patients can be treated at home. Read more: How is your trust at your local hospital? Trained volunteers are already responding to 999 calls in their own car along with ambulances, LAS said, but such volunteers will now be deployed in ambulance cars. Volunteers are equipped, trained to use defibrillators and to support LAS in life-threatening emergency calls in their area, the agency said. Twenty-two volunteers had been trained and evaluated and would be operating cars from New Malden, Deptford, Greenford, Kenton, Edmonton and Ilford, according to widely reported details by the LAS board in March. Image: Response times have reached record highs. Photo: London Ambulance Service A LAS spokesman said: “This project builds on our well-established network of emergency responders to ensure that our ambulances can reach the patients we need most. “These fully trained volunteers, who are already responding to 999 calls in their communities, will help patients who have been assessed as not needing an ambulance but who may need more support than a taxi can provide.” Pressure ambulance services were unveiled on Thursday with the release of last month’s waiting times. The average response time for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent emergencies – defined as calls from people with life-threatening illness or injury – was nine minutes and 35 seconds. This is higher than eight minutes and 51 seconds in February and is the highest average since the current records began in August 2017. Read more: Please take the elevator to the hospital, patients said NHS England data also showed that ambulances took an average of one hour, one minute and three seconds last month to respond to emergency calls such as burns, epilepsy and strokes. This is higher than 42 minutes and seven seconds in February and is the longest time recorded for this class of calls. Emergency response times – such as delayed labor, non-serious burns and diabetes – averaged three hours, 28 minutes and 13 seconds, up from two hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds in February and was another record.
