AFTER a critical review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the East of England Ambulance Service has managed to cut an average of four minutes off the time it takes to respond to an emergency.

However, it says further improvement – and even maintaining the reduced response time – remains 'an extreme challenge'.

Response times to category 2 requests – described as an emergency – have gone from 40 minutes in April 2024 to 36 minutes in April 2025.

The target time set by the NHS is for a mean average of 30 minutes, though national standard time to response has been set at 18 minutes.

Category 2 responses are made to emergency calls for conditions and injuries that are not immediately life-threatening but require urgent assessment, treatment, and/or transport. These calls often involve conditions like strokes, major burns, and certain types of sepsis.

The trust's push towards improved response time came after the CQC issued a Section 64 notice warning it had failed to meet national standards in relation to Category 2 response times. The trust says it accepts the position of the CQC and has begun work to address the areas for improvement.

Darren Meads – Interim Chief of Clinical Operations – told a health overview policy and scrutiny committee: "It's fair to say 30 minutes is an extreme challenge for the service. What's reassuring me is the progress that we've made – in particular in April and not just in Essex actually but around the region."

He said they are now focussing on nine areas to improve productivity – although those improvements have been calculated to bring C2 response times to between 30 and 35 minutes.

He said: "It's likely to be between 30 and 35 minutes which I think arguably is still too long and still in excess of the national standard of 18 minutes so we won't stop our improvement journey but it will mark a significant improvement on previous years' delivery."