Community Care: East of England
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of whether current levels of community-based urgent care services have capacity to offset ambulance demand in the East of England.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Between January and December 2025, a total of 121,305 emergency 999 calls were successfully redirected away from a traditional ambulance dispatch in the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (EEAST) and into alternative care pathways.
These diversions were achieved either through clinical triage and decision‑making provided by EEAST clinicians working within its emergency control rooms, or through further assessment carried out by clinicians based in the Unscheduled Care Hub. EEAST is in discussion with community partners to identify patients that have the potential to be managed in the community without the requirement for an ambulance response.
Overall, this means that 19.1% of all 999 calls received during 2025 were managed through these alternative clinical pathways rather than requiring a frontline ambulance response. Integrated care boards continue to monitor the effectiveness of these measures and are working on further opportunities to expand capacity in community urgent care, ensuring patients receive the right care in the right setting and offsetting ambulance demand.
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