100 extra staff to be recruited by ambulance service in Wales
AN EXTRA 100 frontline staff are set to be recruited by the Welsh Ambulance Service as part of a £3m investment from the Welsh Government.
The aim is to improve the NHS trust’s response times to the most seriously ill or injured patients.
The Welsh Government said the additional emergency ambulance staff will be deployed in a “targeted way” across the country in the areas which are under greatest pressure and where there is greater clinical need.
Some of the money will also be used to introduce a new Cymru High Acuity Response Unit (CHARU) service which will seek to improve outcomes for people who have suffered a cardiac arrest.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: “We are providing this additional funding as we recognise the immense pressures the ambulance service is under to respond to the most seriously ill and injured people.
“By increasing staff capacity in the short term we can improve response times and ensure better care for people who have been waiting too long for an ambulance.”
Latest figures showed that barely half (54.5%) of immediately lifethreatening “red” calls were reached within the target time of eight minutes in May.
This is well below the 65% target which has not been met in more than 18 months.
The slowest ambulances to reach life-threatened patients were in the Powys area with only 43.5% arriving within the eight-minute target.
Meanwhile two-thirds (67.1% ) of “amber” ambulances, which includes strokes, took over an hour to reach their patient.
It is also understood that around 11% of ambulance workers are currently absent due to Covid, burnout, stress or other reasons – the most of any health board or trust in Wales.
Commenting on the investment, Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “Extreme pressure remains across the urgent and emergency care system, and we continue to work with partners to find solutions to the complex and long-standing issues.
“In the meantime, we’re growing our workforce to put us in the best possible position to meet rising demand and have already recruited to more than 260 frontline posts in the last two years. An additional 100 frontline posts is going to bolster our capacity even further, and we’re grateful to Welsh Government for funding this and the pioneering new CHARU initiative, which we hope will improve the outcomes for our most critically ill patients.”
The Welsh Government said its Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care Programme has been established to help improve access to urgent and emergency care. Some £25m in recurrent funding has already been made available to support delivery of programme priorities.
“This complements the £145m made available to Regional Partnership Boards, as part of a Regional Integration Fund, to be used to help people avoid admission to hospital or leave when they are ready,” a spokeswoman added.
We are providing this additional funding as we recognise the immense pressures the ambulance service is under to respond to the most seriously ill and injured people. By increasing staff capacity in the short term we can improve response times and ensure better care for people who have been waiting too long for an ambulance
Health minister Eluned Morgan