Ambulance wait times longer in rural areas

The BBC is allowing people to find out the average ambulance response times in their area, after it emerged that some rural communities have to wait more than 20 minutes for help to arrive.

A response time should be between six and eight minutes and delays can reduce a patient’s chance of survival. In urban areas the average time is seven minutes 14 seconds, but this number increases to 11 minutes 13 seconds in rural areas.

Navigating rural areas can be particularly challenging for emergency response crew because of narrow roads, long distances and poor weather. Some rural community members are being trained to deliver CPR and use a defibrillator in order to reach patients in less time.

The longest wait time was found to be in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, where one community responder said he resigned because of the length of time he was left with injured patients before ambulance crews arrived.  

Full articles:

→ BBC - Critically injured? The longest waits for 999 help

→ BBC - Wells-next-the-Sea has longest wait for ambulances