Further to WQ83303, will the Minister outline when she expects the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee to provide a plan for responsiveness, and whether the plan will be published?
I have received the first iteration of the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee’s delivery plan, which sets out a range of time-bound actions, to be delivered between now and the end of March 2022.
Key actions outlined in the plan include:
- Improved forecasting to better understand and plan for actual demand and match resourcing accordingly;
- Continued implementation of recommendations from the independent demand and capacity review, including a commitment to recruit 36 new staff immediately and use of fire and rescue service crews;
- Demand management – controlling the demand on services while ensuring people are safe and receive the care they need in the place they need it;
- Physician Triage and Assessment (PTAS) - health board clinicians will directly manage appropriate patients remotely and redirect people to clinically-safe alternatives when appropriate.
These actions should enable the Welsh Ambulance Service to better manage 999 demand in the community, increase capacity, improve responsiveness to people with time-sensitive complaints and improve in ambulance patient handovers.
Further actions are also in place, or under rapid development, to enable health boards, the ambulance service and regional partnership boards to improve delivery through whole system solutions to better manage patients in the community and improve the flow of patients through the hospital system and into the community.
I will receive monthly updates on progress against the plan and my officials will be meeting with the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee management team on a regular basis as part of ongoing assurance mechanisms to ensure this work is undertaken with pace and purpose.
An operational plan will be updated on an iterative basis. There is, therefore, no intention to publish this delivery plan.