The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust had the longest average response time to category one calls in England last year, according to data obtained by a Freedom of Information request. 

A category one call refers to a life-threatening incident, like a cardiac arrest, and the national average target response time is seven minutes. 

But in the South West, the average response time increased by 34 per cent between 2019 and 2023, from seven minutes and 41 seconds to ten minutes and 18 seconds.

In Swindon, the average category one response time was five minutes and 35 seconds in 2019 – quicker than the national target – and it was just above the target in 2023, reaching seven minutes and 46 seconds.

However, the longest wait time recorded for a category one call last year in Swindon was 59 minutes and seven seconds – over eight times longer than the national target. 

South Western Ambulance Service also had the third longest average response time for category two calls out of all the regions in England for 2023, at 43 minutes and 28 seconds, despite the national target being 18 minutes. 

On average, responses to category two calls in Swindon have been longer than 18 minutes for the last five years, increasing from 26 minutes and 39 seconds in 2019 to 49 minutes and 21 seconds in 2023. 

Furthermore, the longest response to a category two call in Swindon last year was nine hours and 40 minutes. 

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) said: “We are sorry that we were unable to provide a timely response to some patients. Any occasion where the care we provide falls below the high standards our patients deserve and rightly expect is unacceptable.  

"Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our people and partners, our response times have recovered to a more stable position, compared to the post-pandemic period, but there is still more to do.

“Handover delays at emergency departments remain one of our biggest challenges. To ensure our ambulances are available to attend the next emergency call within the community, we need to be able to hand patients over within the 15 minute national target.

“We continue to work hard with our partners in the NHS and social care, to do all we can to improve the service that patients receive.”