States Assembly | WQ-5-2021

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WQ.5/2021

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY I. GARDINER OF ST. HELIER

QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 18th JANUARY 2021

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 25th JANUARY 2021

Question

Will the Minister inform members –

how many ambulance callouts occurred in each of 2018, 2019 and 2020;
how many of these callouts resulted in the patient being taken to hospital;
how many callouts resulted in hospital admission in each of these years; and
of those that travelled to the hospital, how many were classed as life threatening and, of those, how many occurred in total during the periods 8.00 a.m. to 9.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.;

and will he provide this information broken down by month and by reason for ambulance callout?

Answer

Table 1 shows the number of calls attended by the ambulance service in each of 2018, 2019 and 2020 by year and month. Calls included are Emergency (999) and Urgent calls from a General Practitioner. The Emergency (999) calls are shown by category used in Jersey's Ambulance Service:

• Red1 – Situation is immediately life threatening

• Red2 – Situation is serious or could be life-threatening

• Green1 – Situation is serious but not immediately life-threatening

• Green2 – Situation is less serious and not life-threatening

• Green3 – Non-urgent calls

The category is based on the coding at the time of the call. The service undertakes regular review of the coding and a situation may change from one category to another at some point – this explains the increase in Red1 calls from July 2020, when a new code set was introduced to align Jersey with the latest national standards.

The data excludes routine calls when an ambulance is required to transport/transfer a patient from one hospital or healthcare site to another – e.g. from Jersey General Hospital to Overdale.

Table 1: Calls attended by Ambulance Service, by month and high-level reason, 2018, 2019 and 2020

		Number of calls received by Ambulance Service						Total
		Emergency (999) Calls					Urgent Calls
		Red1	Red2	Green1	Green2	Green3	Urgent Calls
2018	January	8	284	191	78	155	103	819
	February	6	241	187	60	132	91	717
	March	11	317	219	92	174	122	935
	April	9	276	207	84	168	120	864
	May	9	315	261	95	166	98	944
	June	8	283	238	102	181	97	909
	July	10	372	268	70	206	76	1002
	August	9	336	232	76	164	91	908
	September	2	301	251	80	166	94	894
	October	7	319	245	76	158	86	891

	November	12	290	226	85	150	110	873
	December	6	331	234	91	160	98	920
2018 Total		97	3665	2759	989	1980	1186	10676
2019	January	5	328	203	64	168	111	879
	February	4	286	210	75	127	94	796
	March	5	294	228	78	160	98	863
	April	5	299	244	93	176	95	912
	May	7	348	269	79	144	77	924
	June	10	299	248	85	161	98	901
	July	4	327	261	87	210	97	986
	August	8	372	254	83	183	85	985
	September	2	321	238	82	164	75	882
	October	3	357	249	98	187	107	1001
	November	9	317	246	74	156	112	914
	December	6	329	269	87	160	100	951
2019 Total		68	3877	2919	985	1996	1149	10994
2020	January	0	323	215	65	153	95	851
	February	5	299	213	79	153	78	827
	March	3	367	233	79	153	66	901
	April	6	267	219	46	138	67	743
	May	10	317	255	82	166	89	919
	June	2	310	214	94	173	83	876
	July	53	326	154	12	320	79	944
	August	65	371	189	23	369	80	1097
	September	45	269	156	22	331	63	886
	October	43	337	162	14	297	99	952
	November	43	343	146	19	284	62	897
	December	38	364	169	14	263	84	932
2020 Total		313	3893	2325	549	2800	945	10825

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

Note: Category is based on the code set at the time of call; these are reviewed regularly, so incidents may be one category in one month/year but another category at another time. This explains the increase from July 2020 when the code set was introduced to align Jersey with the latest national standards.

Table 2 shows the number of calls emergency and urgent calls where at least one patient has been conveyed to hospital in each of 2018, 2019 and 2020 by year and month.

Table 2: Calls attended by Ambulance Service which have resulted in Patients being conveyed to hospital

		Calls where Patients Taken To hospital		Total
		Emergency	Urgent
2018	January	542	103	645

	February	448	90	538
	March	607	122	729
	April	551	120	671
	May	626	95	721
	June	585	93	678
	July	660	73	733
	August	571	88	659
	September	571	91	662
	October	555	85	640
	November	505	106	611
	December	574	97	671
2018 Total		6795	1163	7958
2019	January	524	108	632
	February	468	90	558
	March	506	97	603
	April	544	95	639
	May	572	75	647
	June	514	95	609
	July	577	94	671
	August	566	82	648
	September	541	71	612
	October	567	104	671
	November	520	109	629
	December	554	97	651
2019 Total		6453	1117	7570
2020	January	503	92	595
	February	507	74	581
	March	486	63	549
	April	308	61	369
	May	403	82	485
	June	455	74	529
	July	516	74	590
	August	628	76	704
	September	476	63	539
	October	533	96	629
	November	492	59	551
	December	454	78	532
2020 Total		5761	892	6653

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

Every patient conveyed to hospital will be admitted to the Emergency Department or to a ward if this has been previously arranged between the GP and the medial staff in the hospital. This question has therefore been assumed to refer to those patients who arrive at the Emergency Department by Ambulance and of these how many are admitted to Jersey General Hospital or Orchard House.

The data source for this is the Hospital's Patient Administration System (PAS) – there is no integration between this and the Ambulance Call and Dispatch (CAD) system. This table differs from the above in that it counts patients where Tables 1 and 2 count calls – a call may have more than one patient.

Table 3: Emergency Department Attendances brought in by Ambulance, by Triage Category and Number of patients who were admitted to hospital, by month, 2018, 2019 and 2020

		Triage Category			Total	Number of ED patients brought in by ambulance who were admitted to hospital
		Major	Minor	Not Recorde d	Total
2018	January	437	150	0	587	300
	February	367	133	0	500	255
	March	494	174	0	668	319
	April	471	132	0	603	288
	May	493	175	0	668	302
	June	439	186	0	625	276
	July	490	198	0	688	285
	August	450	177	0	627	253
	September	448	188	0	636	270
	October	422	171	0	593	235
	November	377	166	0	543	242
	December	429	150	0	579	273
2018 Total		5317	2000	0	7317	3298
2019	January	410	164	2	576	270
	February	360	146	1	507	260
	March	374	149	3	526	252
	April	417	139	2	558	252
	May	476	127	1	604	310
	June	444	124	1	569	286
	July	413	177	0	590	272
	August	413	170	4	587	259
	September	407	167	0	574	256
	October	397	204	0	601	258
	November	416	168	0	584	293
	December	416	171	0	587	278
2019 Total		4943	1906	14	6863	3246
2020	January	386	152	0	538	278
	February	357	149	0	506	258
	March	364	133	0	497	242
	April	252	69	0	321	156
	May	328	124	0	452	199
	June	357	145	0	502	229
	July	377	166	0	543	240
	August	458	197	0	655	289

	September	351	140	491	230
	October	431	136	567	293
	November	370	145	515	250
	December	354	135	489	254
2020 Total		4385	1691	6076	2918

Source: Jersey General Hospital Patient Administration System (TrakCare)

Table 4 shows the number of calls where patients have been conveyed to hospital and the call is considered life threatening (Red1 or Red2) as well as the number of calls during the times in question

Table 4: Ambulance calls considered life threatening by time of day, 2018, 2019 and 2020

		Red1 and Red2 (life threatening) calls where patient conveyed to hospital
		Total Calls	Between 08:00 and 09:00	Between 16:00 and 18:00
2018	January	243	30	37
	February	194	20	29
	March	269	26	27
	April	221	18	33
	May	246	23	38
	June	217	26	25
	July	284	30	47
	August	260	26	37
	September	238	26	43
	October	238	27	31
	November	211	25	30
	December	254	25	44
2018 Total		2875	302	421
2019	January	237	33	35
	February	213	31	41
	March	209	23	31
	April	211	34	29
	May	257	29	46
	June	211	18	30
	July	232	24	29
	August	253	30	29
	September	229	28	38
	October	250	30	40
	November	220	18	37
	December	226	20	36
2019 Total		2748	318	421
2020	January	243	32	33
2020	February	213	20	38

	March	237	24	51
	April	123	8	24
	May	165	16	29
	June	184	21	33
	July	245	19	32
	August	275	24	43
	September	204	24	32
	October	259	35	44
	November	246	33	40
	December	232	36	32
2020 Total		2626	292	431

Source: Government of Jersey Ambulance Service Call and Dispatch System

Ambulance callouts