FOI 26-253 Response and Turnaround Times for Purple or Red Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-253 Response and Turnaround Times for Purple or Red Incidents
- Request Date
- 03 Jun 2026
- Response Date
- 26 Jun 2026
- Information Requested
I am looking for information regarding both the average and longest waiting times for ambulances and the turnaround times for ambulances arriving at hospitals and the length of time they had to wait before handing over to colleagues in the Emergency Dept. As such, please provide the following information:
- The average and longest waiting times for an ambulance to arrive at a purple or red incident, from 01/01/2026 to 31/05/2026 (or the most recent stats available) with a breakdown by each week and location.
- Emergency Hospital Turnaround Times, from 01/01/2026 to 31/05/2026 (or the most recent stats available).
- Breakdown of turnaround times in every Emergency Dept across Scotland, incl. information on the longest waits, from 01/01/2026 to 31/05/2026 (or the most recent stats available) with a breakdown by each week.
Please could I request that this data is provided in Excel format, as is allowed by FOI rules.
- Response
Q1 – Please see the attached sheet detailing the emergency response times to Purple and Red coded incidents from 01/01/2026 - 31/05/2026 broken down by week and health board area.
Please note: the response times show total time and do not factor in possible upgrading or downgrading that may occur depending on the patient condition. For example, a call may start out as a yellow call, subsequently be upgraded to a purple call some time later, but only the total time from the first call received is shown. The starting point is always set for the colour category first determined, not the final colour category assigned. Where delays occur, clinical advisors maintain contact with the patient, checking their condition on an ongoing basis, and upgrading when appropriate.
Q2 & Q3 – Please see the attached sheet detailing the turnaround times broken down by week and by emergency hospital. The available stats include the number of conveyances to each hospital, the median1, 90th percentile2 and longest turnaround times.
Please note that ambulance turnaround time is defined as the period from when a vehicle arrives at a hospital to the point at which it is able to depart and become available for the next call.
These recorded times incorporate a range of operational activities and external factors. This includes, but is not limited to, ambulance clinicians continuing to support patient care prior to formal handover, completing clinical and administrative processes, cleaning and preparing the vehicle for safe reuse, and, in some cases, providing information or statements to partner agencies such as the police.
As such, turnaround times should not be interpreted as a direct measure of the time taken to transfer a patient into hospital care. The metric reflects the total time an ambulance resource remains on site and unavailable for redeployment, rather than solely the duration of the clinical handover process.
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five but greater that zero. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
- Response Documents
