Summary of Report to Swanage Town Council 26th January 2026

I’d like to start by thanking the Town Council for raising these 6 monthly monitoring requests, on the Ambulance Car service, and on Swanage Hospital attendance. The responses enable the Town Council to keep an eye on these vital health services on behalf of residents. In the case of the Ambulance Car, where we have been monitoring the service for several years, we’ve moved from 40% staffing and the planned withdrawal of the Car to a well staffed service, with a very positive impact on Swanage emergency response times.
NB We are due to raise the next request for the July-December 2025 data.

Ambulance Car: Summarising SWAST response for the period Jan-June 25
The good news is car staffing for Jan-June 25 was up to 93%, the highest since we started monitoring. 83% of car call outs are now to Purbeck, with the majority of the Purbeck call outs to Swanage (77%).

Emergency response times – for Swanage category 1, stopped breathing, heart stopped beating, or unconscious and unresponsive, response times had improved, with the 7 minute target met in two of the six months, although the average time for the whole 6 month period was just over 9 minutes.
For Swanage category 2, risk of death or serious disability, we are still some way off the 20 minute target, although average times were better than in the previous 6 months, at between 38 and 45 minutes.

The number of Car call outs in the first half of 2025 was however down by almost a quarter compared to the previous 6 months, from 540 to 410.

Swanage Hospital
The Town Council has also begun to raise a 6 monthly FOI request in relation to attendance at Swanage Hospital minor injuries unit and outpatient clinics. However the response data has been provided in a different format to the 10 year data previously provided to a resident, so a baseline is being established and what is happening will become clearer once we have the next set of 6 month data. The response included a list of 7 clinics that had been closed since 2017, with a further 3 clinics that closed over the same period not listed.
The Development Trust has requested regular information about the clinics that are provided here, with a view to having a regular listing in the newsletter.
There is a promise of new clinics here with the consultant online, and there remains hope that chemotherapy outpatients will be restored to Wareham.

There is feedback on the recent consultation on services at Corfe Village Hall this Thursday 2-4pm. The petition to restore local services has 3,600 signatures.
Residents are grateful to Dementia Friendly Purbeck who met the UHD CE regarding the closure of Lulworth specialist dementia friendly ward at Poole.
Again, thanks for continued joint working to save and improve services here.