Modelling emergency response times for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) patients in rural areas of the North of England using routinely collected data

Modelling emergency response times for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) patients in rural areas of the North of England using routinely collected data

National response time targets for ambulance services are known to be more strongly maintained in urban areas compared to rural. That may mean that responses in rural areas could be less immediate which can in turn affect survival of those experiencing cardiac arrest. Thus, analysis of variation in response times using routinely collected data can be used to understand which rural areas have the highest need for emergency intervention. In this study we have focused, given the heterogeneity of demographic make up, on a specific area of the North of England. Some areas in North England have shown to have a large proportion of cardiac arrests occurring in a rural setting, specifically, in the anonymised study region this was almost half of the cases at 46.3%. Response times to these areas were found to be over 3.5 minutes slower than for urban areas making it worthy of further exploration.

Megan Harries & Anastasia Ushakova

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12873-025-01170-7

https://link.springer.com/journal/12873

11 january 2025

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