Call Connect
Call Connect is a new way of measuring ambulance service response times and, from April 1, 2008, the new standard means that the clock will start ticking the moment a 999 call is put through to an emergency control room.
Call Connect presThis was one of the recommendations in the Department of Health report Taking Healthcare to the Patient (2005), which details how ambulance services should modernise in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
In future the eight-minute target for responding to life-threatening patients will incorporate the 90 second processing time which was previously excluded. This effectively gives six-and-a-half-minutes in which to respond to a patient in a serious condition, and our key response performance target of reaching 75 per cent of life-threatening (category A) calls within eight minutes will become even more challenging.
The 75 per cent target will remain the same, but eight minutes really will mean eight minutes. The estimated gap in performance against the new standard across the East of England is currently 11-13 per cent, even though we are one of the highest performing ambulance services in the country.
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