Crucial emergency care system to be scrapped by NHSE within months

NHS England has confirmed it will not renew the contract for the Intelligent Routing Platform (IRP), and that the service will cease to be available within three months.

The IRP has been a key pillar of the NHS’s urgent and emergency care service since it was implemented in November 2022, as demand on ambulance services reached record levels following the pandemic. It automatically redirects 999 calls to another trust if the patient’s local ambulance service is subject to high demand. 

The most recent urgent and emergency care recovery plan, published in January 2023, pledged to “further develop” the IRP. 

NHSE now proposes that individual ambulance trusts will be responsible for tackling delays in answering calls, as was the case before the pandemic.

HSJ understands that ambulance leaders are very concerned by the decision and the speed with which it is to be implemented. Trust CEOs are meeting next week to consider their response.

One senior ambulance service figure told HSJ: “Every ambulance service is angry, frustrated [and] worried. [The IRP] is critical infrastructure for 999 call taking and minimises any delay for a patient ringing 999.”

They added there were “always times when demand spikes outstrips availability within a trust”, and said local ambulance services would struggle to “pick up the cost”.

The biggest users of the IRP are the South Central and East of England Ambulance Services.

Delays in answering 999 calls have improved since the IRP was introduced. Mean call answering times in 2022-23 were 39 seconds, but fell to five seconds in 2024-25. Meanwhile, the volume of calls requiring rerouting has dropped to around 35 calls a day.

An NHS England spokesperson said: “Answering patient calls is the responsibility of ambulance trusts. NHS England’s strategy has been to work with trusts to improve call handling so that rerouting is not needed, not least because there are benefits for patients in the call being answered by the home ambulance service where alternatives to conveyance can be coordinated.

“We are now close to achieving that goal, with outstanding issues in a small number of services. This is why we have put in place a three-month extension to the commercial arrangements to allow a smooth transition back to the pre-pandemic arrangements, and value for money for the taxpayer.”