Our performance

We operate from 308 response locations, on average taking more than 3,200 Triple Zero (000) calls every day.

As the largest ambulance service in the country, the QAS responds to over 1,400 Code 1 emergencies every single day.

It is important to remember that our responses and their codes are dependent on the severity of an incident. Code 1As are our sickest and most critically ill patients and require an immediate response under lights and sirens. These could be cardiac arrest patients, those in devastating car crashes, a severe asthma attack or drowning in a backyard pool.

Those patients with lower, more non-life-threatening injuries or illness may not receive an immediate response while we prioritise the most critical patients.

Below is a breakdown of our performance this quarter for the current financial year.

Summary of July 2023 to March 2024 performance

We have continued to experience significant growth in demand. Despite this increasing demand across Queensland, and through heatwaves, cyclones, and severe storms, the community can rest assured that the QAS continues to prioritise its most critical Code 1A patients.

Given the recent demand challenges contributed to by the environmental conditions, our Triple Zero (000) call taking performance continues to exceed the target, achieving 91.74% answered within 10 seconds and our average response time to our most vulnerable patients was 8.5 minutes. Our officers attended over 2,900 Code 1 and 2 incidents per day and transported over 3,000 patients. During this period, over 892,000 Triple Zero (000) calls were received by QAS Operations Centres across the state, with some days experiencing up to 24% increase in call volume.

Triple Zero (000)

The QAS answers on average over 99,000 Triple Zero (000) calls per month.

For many patients experiencing an emergency, Triple Zero (000) is the first entry into the health system. It is important that an emergency call to Triple Zero (000) is answered as quickly as possible to prioritise the situation. This allows the QAS to arrange for the immediate dispatch of an ambulance vehicle in an actual time critical situation and to coordinate the appropriate responses to patients who require a less urgent response.

Based on the priority code of the patient, the QAS will maintain clinical oversight to ensure the safety of those patients waiting in the community. This team, known as the QAS's Clinical Hub, acts as a second set of clinical eyes after patients have been prioritised by an Emergency Medical Dispatcher on the phones. The Clinical Hub will ensure these patients are risk assessed and maintain a level of care either by telephone or telehealth to ensure their condition is monitored. If the condition of the patient changes, the Clinical Hub will enable the escalation of a QAS ambulance response.

In the 2022-23 financial year, the QAS answered 93.35 percent of Triple Zero (000) calls within 10 seconds exceeding the performance measure of 90 percent. Despite the increase in the number of Triple Zero (000) calls received each day, this is a significant improvement on the previous financial year's performance of 85.78 percent of Triple Zero (000) calls answered within 10 seconds.

For the July 2023 to March 2024 period, our statewide operations centre staff received 892,378 calls for patients requiring assistance and continued to exceed our target of 90% with 91.74% of calls answered within 10 seconds.

The graph below provides a breakdown of our performance by quarter for the current financial year.

Response time

Response time is measured from the time the Triple Zero (000) call is answered in one of our Operations Centres through to the arrival of the first paramedic at the scene.

There are two performance measures – 50th percentile and 90th percentile. This represents the time it takes to attend 50 percent and 90 percent of incidents, respectively.

Percentile targets are set at a statewide level with our aim to arrive at 50 percent of incidents in 8.2 minutes and 90 percent of incidents in 16.5 minutes.

Whilst acknowledging the challenges in achieving response time targets, the QAS continues to prioritise the most critical patients (Code 1A) across the state.

In the 2022–23 financial year, the response performance for Code 1A was 8.6 minutes (50th percentile) and 17.3 minutes (90th percentile). This is an improvement on the 2021–22 financial year’s performance of 8.8 minutes (50th percentile) and 17.6 minutes (90th percentile). Despite the increase in demand for services, figures for July 2023 to March 2024 indicates our crews are getting to patients faster than the same period the previous financial year, taking 8.5 minutes to get to our sickest patients.

The graph below provides a breakdown of our performance by quarter for the current financial year for our most time critical patients (Code 1A).

Helpful definitions:

PPI: The Public Performance Indicators (PPI) are a quarterly review of the QAS's performance.

SDS: The Service Delivery Standard (SDS) is the performance benchmark in which the QAS is held to account.

View more data here

• Public Performance Indicators: Third Quarter 2023-24 (PDF, 586KB)
• PPI Quarter 3 2023-24 (XLSX, 890KB)

View previous Performance Reports