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The NHS's latest report on ambulance services in England for March 2024 reveals significant progress in response times for emergency calls across all categories compared to recent months. The Ambulance Quality Indicators (AQI) Statistical Note, released in April, underscores both improvements and persistent challenges within the sector. Recent figures obtained from the Liberal Democratic party suggest ongoing struggles with response times, particularly for category two patients, which may include individuals experiencing strokes or heart attacks requiring a response within 18 minutes. Similarly, in November last year, ambulance waits for category 2 calls surged to their highest level since December 2022, reaching 93 minutes, after dropping to 32 minutes in January 2023 according to the British Heart Foundation. However, according to the latest statistical figures obtained from AQI, March 2024 witnessed the shortest average response times for all four categories of emergency calls since August 2023.

The NHS has made major improvements across long waits, urgent and emergency services, and cancer care, latest performance figures published on Thursday (11) have shown. The number of patients waiting more than 18 months fell to 10,737 by April - down by more than 90 per cent from 124,911 in September 2021 and by more than four-fifths since the start of January when there were 54,882. Around half of NHS trusts in England have no patients on their elective care waiting lists apart from those who have chosen to wait longer. More than one in five (21%) trusts had completely eliminated 18-month waits. However, the overall waiting list has risen to over 7.3 million entries in England. "I promised I would cut NHS waiting lists and we are delivering," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. "Reducing 18-month waits by over 90 per cent is huge progress, and it is testament to the hard work of NHS staff who have achieved this despite one of the busiest winters on record. "We still have work to do, but backed by record government investment and the ongoing efforts of the NHS, I am confident we will get patients the care they need more quickly." Ambulance response rates have improved to their fastest in two years, with average category two response times now at 28.5 minutes and category one at 8 mins. The 62-day cancer backlog has fallen for the first time since before the pandemic, with those waiting two months or more down from 21,823 at the end of the last financial year (March 2022) to 19,248 at the end of this March (2023). This is down almost 15,000 from a peak of 34,000 in July 2022.

Community pharmacies are well placed to play a role in preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) said Director of NHS Services. The recent analysis by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) revealed that nearly 100,000 more people with cardiovascular disease than expected have died since the start of the pandemic in England. Latest figures show that the number of people waiting for time-sensitive cardiac care was at a record high of nearly 390,000 at the end of April in England. Average ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes have consistently been above 30 minutes since the beginning of 2022, and in December 2022 they even breached 90 minutes. The target is 18 minutes, though the Government has set a new average target of 30 minutes over 2023/24. Director of NHS Services, Alastair Buxton, said: "It is concerning to hear that there have been tens of thousands of preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We share BHF's desire to see more action on preventing the causes of CVD and, subject to appropriate funding being in place, community pharmacy teams are well placed to play a role in this.