FOI 26-454 Chest Pain incidents in NHS Greater Glasgow

Freedom of Information Request

Reference
FOI 26-454 Chest Pain incidents in NHS Greater Glasgow
Request Date
28 Sep 2026
Response Date
13 Oct 2026
Information Requested
  1. For the calendar year 2025, the number of incidents where chest pain was the presenting complaint (as recorded on the patient record, or by call triage code if that is more readily available), and of these, the number conveyed to hospital and the number not conveyed.

 

  1. A copy of the current clinical guidelines and standard operating procedures for the assessment of patients with chest pain, including any on non-conveyance. Please include both national documents and any specific to the West Region or NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

 

  1. A copy of any written advice or information given to chest pain patients who are not conveyed, and details of the follow-up or referral options available to crews for these patients in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

 

  1. Which types of ambulance resource can be dispatched to chest pain calls, and how many of each are based in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and how many there are in Scotland as a whole.
Response
  1. For the calendar year 2025, the number of incidents where chest pain was the presenting complaint (as recorded on the patient record, or by call triage code if that is more readily available), and of these, the number conveyed to hospital and the number not conveyed.

Please see the table below that details the total number of emergency incidents attended by the Scottish Ambulance Service that were categorised as 'Chest Pains' within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area for the calendar year 2025.  This sheet also details how many of those attended emergency incidents were conveyed and not conveyed to hospital. 

 

Call Started Calendar Year 

Call Type 

Healthboardareaname 

Chief Complaint Group Desc 

Attended Incidents 

Conveyed 

Not Conveyed 

2025 

Emergency 

Greater Glasgow and Clyde 

Chest Pains 

13508 

9707 

3801 

 

 

  1. A copy of the current clinical guidelines and standard operating procedures for the assessment of patients with chest pain, including any on non-conveyance. Please include both national documents and any specific to the West Region or NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Scottish Ambulance Service clinicians assess and manage patients presenting with chest pain in accordance with current Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee (JRCALC) clinical practice guidelines and associated national clinical guidance. 

The Service does not hold any West Region or NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde specific clinical guidelines for the assessment of chest pain. Assessment, treatment and conveyance decisions are undertaken in line with national clinical guidance and professional clinical judgement. 

Non-conveyance decisions are also governed by national clinical guidance, clinical assessment and risk assessment processes, with decisions made on a patient-specific basis. 

 

  1. A copy of any written advice or information given to chest pain patients who are not conveyed, and details of the follow-up or referral options available to crews for these patients in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold a standard written information leaflet specifically for chest pain patients who are assessed and not conveyed to hospital. Advice provided to patients is determined by the outcome of the individual clinical assessment and any referral or follow-up arrangements made. Clinicians provide appropriate safety-netting advice, including information on when patients should seek further medical assistance if their symptoms worsen or change. 

 

  1. Which types of ambulance resource can be dispatched to chest pain calls, and how many of each are based in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and how many there are in Scotland as a whole.

The resource types recorded as having attended chest pain incidents within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde during 2025 were: 

 

  • Accident & Emergency ambulances 
  • Paramedic Response Units 
  • First Responders 
  • App First Responders 
  • SORT vehicles 
  • Managers 
  • Specialist Transport and Retrieval resources 
  • Patient Transport Vehicles 

 

The incident dataset records resource attendances and does not record the number of resources of each type available within a particular geographic area. 

 

Information on the Scottish Ambulance Service fleet, including vehicle types and base locations, is publicly available on our website at Scottish Ambulance Service Fleet List. As this information is otherwise reasonably accessible, it is exempt from disclosure under section 25(1) of FOISA. 

 

Important information to consider 

The Scottish Ambulance Service operates a dynamic national response model. Resources are not restricted to incidents within the immediate vicinity of their base location and may routinely respond across Health Board and operational area boundaries. Consequently, we do not hold a definitive figure for the number of resources available to respond to chest pain incidents within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde at any given time. Resource availability varies continuously according to operational demand, location, mobilisation and status. 

In This Section