The London Ambulance Service has cut response times by up to eight minutes despite facing some of its busiest weeks ever this summer.
The LAS reached patients in need of urgent “Category two” calls for emergencies such as strokes, difficulty breathing and chest pains eight minutes quicker in July 2025 compared to a year earlier.
It comes as the ambulance service faced one of the busiest periods in its history, with call handlers receiving over 12,200 more 999 calls in July 2025, compared to in July 2024.
There were almost 400 extra calls a day last month compared to a year earlier, with an increase of nearly 7% in 999 call outs.
The LAS also met its target in July for reaching the most seriously ill or injured patients – known as ‘Category one’ calls – in under seven minutes, according to monthly performance figures published on Thursday.
Paramedics responded to Category one call outs 29 seconds faster in July 2025 compared to a year earlier.
In July 2024, the LAS took 38 minutes and 54 seconds to respond to Category two calls, but this figure was down to 30 minutes and 46 seconds in July 2025.
Response times have been improved in part by a focus on “hear and treat” measures, where clinicians speak to patients over the phone and refer them to the appropriate care centre to try and avoid them having to go to busy hospitals when it is not necessary.
More than one in five LAS patients are now treated using hear and treat, with 27,500 Londoners treated over the phone last month instead of having to make unnecessary trips to hospitals.
Nearly 5000 extra patients were treated over the phone in July 2025 compared to a year earlier.
Changes being made to help paramedics grab equipment faster at the start of their shift and the LAS working with hospitals in London to be able to hand over patients faster and get crews back on the road sooner have also helped cut response times.
Jason Killens KAM, Chief Executive at London Ambulance Service, said: “These figures are testament to the hard work of our incredible operational colleagues to do everything they can to make more clinicians available on shift for our sickest and most seriously injured patients across London.
“I recognise that there is more work to do, but these promising response times for patients show that our work to treat more patients over phone, improve our processes, and working closely with our NHS partners in the capital is paying off.
“Our people have really focused on getting to our sickest patients even faster despite the challenging backdrop of further demand on the NHS.”
