Emergency Ambulances - How we prioritise your call

The call taker at the ambulance service uses a computer system. The computer system decides how urgent your call is, what priority it is, and what help you need.

All 999 calls are given a colour code – purple, red, amber or green. The colour code that your call is given depends on what is wrong with the patient.

The codes help the ambulance service know how serious the problem is, how quickly to send help, and what kind of help is needed.

The most serious and life-threatening situations have the highest priority. This is to make sure we get to the sickest patients first.

Purple Arrest calls - Life or death emergency

When a person is having a cardiac or respiratory arrest.  

This means when someone’s heart stops pumping blood around the body.

• The person is unconscious
• They are not responding
• They are not breathing, or their breathing doesn’t look normal – this means they are making gasping noises
• They  may have short episodes of seizure like movements

Our ambulances will use flashing blue lights and sirens. We will try to respond to these situations in 6 to 8 minutes.

Red Emergency calls - Life or death emergency

When a person is at high risk of cardiac or respiratory arrest. This means they could become very unwell or die if they don’t get help quickly.

Red calls include choking, allergic reaction or severe blood loss.

Our ambulances will use flashing blue lights and sirens. We will try to respond to these situations in 6 to 8 minutes.

Amber calls – Patients who are not thought to be in danger of death but still need help.

A Paramedic or Nurse will check the call to decide what help and care is needed.
Amber calls include a suspected stroke.

If an ambulance is needed,  we will send help as soon as we can, based on who needs help the most. Other people we may send include:

• An Advanced Paramedic in a rapid responder car
• A trained volunteer (Community Welfare Responder or Community First Responder)

Sometimes if an ambulance is on its way and we get a more serious call we may send the ambulance to that emergency instead.

This helps make sure that the people who need our help the most get it quickly. But it may mean that some people wait longer than they might expect.

If it is safe, and you are able to, we might suggest  you find your own way to hospital, like by car or taxi. When we are very busy, this can sometimes mean you get there faster.

Green calls - Not serious or life-threatening.

This could be things like a small burn or a nose bleed.

You may speak to a Nurse or a Paramedic who will assess your call and give you advice on what to do. They may also tell you where to go for help, like a Doctor, Pharmacy, or how to look after yourself at home.

If an ambulance is on its way to a patient, and we get another call that is a higher priority, we may divert that ambulance to the other call. This makes sure that the people who need our help the most, get our help soonest. This can mean that some people could wait longer than they might expect.

If you decide to find your way to the hospital, you will need to tell the call handler or phone 999 back to inform them you no longer need the ambulance.

Travelling to hospital in an ambulance does not mean that you will get treated quicker when you arrive at the hospital. You join the queue of people needing help in the hospital and will be seen in order of priority.