The National Ambulance Service (OMSZ) has published its response times for August, showing that nationwide, ambulance units reached 90% of the most serious cases within 27.06 minutes. The stated target is to reach 90% of the most serious cases within 15 minutes.
According to a statement sent to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) on Thursday, ambulances were called to 95,484 cases nationwide in August, including 16,884 in Budapest. Compared with July, the number of cases increased by 554, or 0.6%, nationwide, while it decreased by 204, or 1.2%, in Budapest.
Compared with August last year, the number of cases was 7.8% higher nationwide and 6.3% higher in Budapest. In the national dataset published since January 2025, the August figure was the highest recorded so far.
Nationwide, 11,832 cases were classified as P1, meaning the most urgent category, including 2,272 cases in Budapest. This was 291 fewer cases nationwide and 136 fewer in Budapest than in July.
Nationwide, ambulance units reached 75% of the most urgent cases within 20.69 minutes and 90% within 27.06 minutes. Compared with the July figures, these response times increased by 22 and 38 seconds, respectively.
In Budapest, the time within which ambulances arrived at 75% of cases increased by 31 seconds to 19.97 minutes, while the time within which they reached 90% of cases increased by 2 seconds to 24.76 minutes. In August, ambulances in Budapest reached 90% of the most urgent cases 2.30 minutes faster than the national average.
Among the regions, the response time for 90% of the most urgent cases was shortest in the Northern Great Plain region, at 24.29 minutes, and longest in Northern Hungary, at 30.33 minutes.
The ambulance service emphasized that its goal is for units to reach 90% of the most serious cases within 15 minutes.
The nationwide August figure of 27.06 minutes and the Budapest figure of 24.76 minutes both show that significant improvement is still needed in this area, the statement added.
The OMSZ also announced that it publishes response-time data every month on the stat.mentok.hu website.
At the end of August, the ambulance service announced that from September it would publish response times broken down by nationwide, Budapest and regional data, as well as case severity, including the number of cases in each category.
