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Ambulance response times across Gwent have shown an improvement in latest figures published. 

Welsh Government statistics show during February this year, there were 793 calls in the most serious red category – which are those at high risk of cardiac or respiratory arrest, including illnesses and trauma. 

The Welsh Ambulance Service’s median response time – which is the middle number of all response times and used to measure performance as it isn’t skewed by either really fast or slow responses – for red calls in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) area was seven minutes and 58 seconds in February. 

The Welsh Government target is that such calls are responded to within six to eight minutes. 

February’s figure was a 24-second improvement on January’s eight minutes and 22 second response time, when there were 1,053 red calls – and was also better than the 8.43 minute figure for December 2025, where there were 1,119 such calls.

February’s performance matched October when there were 828 red calls and also bettered the 8.14 minute performance from August and 8.19 minute figure from July when the new call categories were introduced. Those figures were recorded against 774 and 813 calls respectively. 

The only month in which the ambulance service bettered its February response time, for red calls, was November with 7.34m against 882 calls. 

The Welsh Government also publishes a 90th percentile figure, which is the point at which 90% of responses were quicker and 10% were slower, with the target being 20 minutes so that 90% of calls receive an ambulance response within 20 minutes. 

In the ABUHB area this figure for February was 17.42m – which meant 90% of patients received a response within this time. Across Wales the target was missed as 90% received a response within 21 minutes and 45 seconds. 

The ambulance service achieved a better 90th percentile figure in the area during November, October, and July last year.

The 90th percentile figure for purple calls for people suffering from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which also has a six to eight minute target response time, were the best recorded in Gwent since the new system was introduced. 

In February, 90% of patients received a response within 13 minutes and 16 seconds, compared to a Wales wide figure of 15 minutes and 30 seconds – with the target again being 90% should receive a response within 20 minutes. 

February’s figure for the ABUHB area was a two-and-a-half minute improvement on January. The previous best 90th percentile response figure was 13.41 minutes, which was recorded in November.

When the new call categories were introduced, the Welsh Government said the primary measure for purple calls would be the percentage of people to have a heartbeat restored after a cardiac arrest until arrival at hospital, known as the ROSC rate (Return of Spontaneous Circulation). It said countries including Ireland, Scotland, and Australia already use the approach and survival rates have improved. 

In February, 23.3% of patients in Gwent had their heartbeat restored and retained until arrival at hospital, although higher percentages were recorded in September, October, and November – when the figure was 26.2%. The all-Wales figure for February was 21.4%.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said, when it introduced the new call categories, it did so in response to a recommendation from the Senedd’s health and social care committee, which concluded the existing ambulance response target, in place since 1974. was no longer appropriate or fit for purpose.