More than one-third of ambulance workload involved non-urgent transfers, report finds

Local emergencyhealthTop News More than one-third of ambulance workload involved non-urgent transfers, report finds Ambulance Crews To Stop Overtime Work In Protest Over Staffing Crisis Relevant News More than one-third of ambulance workload involved non-urgent transfers, report finds 7 August 2026 40 degree peak and yellow weather warning for Friday 7 August 2026 Spy case extradition hearing delayed again after Azerbaijani interpreter fails to appear 6 August 2026 Marilena Panayi 7 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Cyprus’ Ambulance Call Control Centre handled 128,178 incidents between January 2025 and June 2026, while median ambulance response times remained broadly stable despite a rise in demand, according to the Ambulance Service’s epidemiological and operational report. The report also highlights that 47,437 incidents, or 37% of the total workload, involved non-urgent patient transfers to and from hospitals, care facilities and other healthcare services. It says these transfers reduce the fleet’s flexibility because the same ambulances are also used to respond to emergency calls. The Call Control Centre managed 85,213 incidents during 2025 and a further 42,965 in the first six months of 2026. Compared with the same period in 2025, when 41,947 incidents were recorded, this represents an increase of 1,018 incidents, or 2.4%. The largest year-on-year increase was recorded in April 2026, when incidents rose 9.5% from 6,415 to 7,027. June recorded the second-largest increase, up 5.3% from 7,061 to 7,433. January was the only month in the first half of 2026 to record a decline, with incidents falling 3.7% from 7,627 to 7,341. The increase was not driven solely by emergency calls. Emergency incidents rose by about 1.6%, from 26,341 in the first half of 2025 to 26,761 during the same period in 2026. Other categories, including routine and urgent patient transfers, increased by about 3.8%, from 15,606 to 16,204. Of the additional 1,018 incidents recorded, around 41% were emergency calls and 59% fell into the remaining categories. Overall, 80,455 incidents, or 62.8% of the total workload, were classified as emergency calls. During 2025, ambulance crews carried out 31,334 routine and urgent patient transfers, an average of about 86 per day. In the first half of 2026, they completed 16,103 transfers, averaging around 89 per day. The proportion of transfers rose slightly from 36.8% in 2025 to 37.5% during the first half of 2026. The largest category involved transporting patients to homes or care facilities, accounting for 18,061 transfers over the 18-month period. Despite the higher workload, key performance indicators remained relatively stable. Across the 18-month period, the median activation time was 3.21 minutes and the median response time was 10.33 minutes. Crews spent a median of 9.70 minutes at the scene, transport took a median of 11.13 minutes and patient handover lasted a median of 4.52 minutes. Response times remained close to 10 minutes throughout the reporting period. The fastest median response time during the first half of 2026 was recorded in April at 9.67 minutes, while the slowest was in May at 10.82 minutes. However, the report notes that only 34.7% of incidents were activated within two minutes, while 37.4% received an ambulance response within eight minutes. Performance varied across the island. Paphos recorded the fastest median response time at 8.25 minutes, followed by Larnaca at 9.13 minutes. Median response times were 10.37 minutes in Limassol, 10.75 minutes in Famagusta and 11.68 minutes in Nicosia. Mountainous areas recorded the slowest median response time at 12.82 minutes, 4.57 minutes longer than Paphos. The report notes that stations handling the highest number of incidents did not necessarily record the longest response times. Stations in Latsia, Strovolos, Engomi and Polemidia handled large workloads while maintaining response times comparable with other urban stations. Cases classified as yellow priority, covering urgent or potentially urgent incidents, accounted for 59,388 incidents, or 46.3% of the total. Purple priority cases, which mainly relate to patient transfers, totalled 47,559 incidents, or 37.1%, while life-threatening red priority incidents numbered 17,715, or 13.8%. Combined, yellow and red priority incidents accounted for 80,455 emergency calls, representing around six in 10 incidents. The most common reason for calls during the 18-month period was people feeling unwell, with 21,554 incidents recorded. Falls accounted for 10,703 incidents, respiratory problems and shortness of breath for 9,286, road traffic collisions for 7,169 and fainting episodes for 5,576. Other frequently reported incidents included chest pain, unconsciousness, bleeding, strokes and seizures. The epidemiological profile remained broadly stable between 2025 and the first half of 2026. The report recorded an overall 98% agreement between the initial telephone triage protocol and the final protocol assigned by ambulance crews. During the first half of 2025, agreement remained above 99% and stayed between 97.99% and 99.20% until April 2026. It fell to 87.94% in May and 89.37% in June. The report says the decline may be linked to changes in coding, different names for similar protocols or inconsistencies in the quality and consistency of recorded data. 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