A target set for the East of England Ambulance Service to meet the national standard for its emergency requests has been described as a "extreme challenge".

Response times to category 2 requests – described as an emergency – have gone from 40 minutes in April 2024 to 36 minutes in April 2025.

The target for category 2 responses – which are defined as emergency calls for conditions and injuries that are not immediately life-threatening but require urgent assessment, treatment, and/or transport. These calls often involve conditions like strokes, major burns, and certain types of sepsis – is for a mean average of 18 minutes.

NHS England's 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance issued in January said while the target is the same category 2 ambulance response times should average no more than 30 minutes across 2025/26.

The trust's push towards improved response times across the East of England ambulance service come after the CQC issued a Section 64 notice warning it had failed to meet national standards in relation to Category 2 response times. The trust says it accepts the position of the CQC and has begun work to address the areas for improvement.

Darren Meads – Interim Chief of Clinical Operations – told a health overview policy and scrutiny committee: "It's fair to say 30 minutes is an extreme challenge for the service. What's reassuring me is the progress that we've made – in particular in April and not just in Essex actually but around the region."

He said they are now focussing on nine areas to improve productivity – although those improvements have been calculated to bring C2 response times to between 30 and 35 minutes.

He said: "It's likely to be between 30 and 35 minutes which I think arguably is still too long and still in excess of the national standard of 18 minutes so we won't stop our improvement journey but it will mark a significant improvement on previous years' delivery."