How many extra ambulance staff have been employed in Wales over each of the last six months as a result of additional Welsh Government support?
The Emergency Ambulance Services Committee is responsible for the commissioning of emergency ambulance services, and for ensuring the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust has sufficient resources to respond to patients who require an emergency ambulance response 24/7. The Trust has been supported to recruit an additional 127 operational staff in 2021/2022, with the final 88 of these currently undergoing training to become operational by the end of May 2022.
A further 36 frontline clinicians have been recruited in 2021/22 to double the staffing complement on the clinical support desk to improve provision of advice over the telephone, supporting people to access the right care, in the right place, first time.
In 2021/2022, the Welsh Government allocated an additional £8m to the Trust to recruit additional staff across non-emergency patient transport services, emergency ambulance services and the NHS 111 Wales service. This funding was also used to procure new software to support advanced triage, supporting better decision making and clinically safe reductions in the volumes of people transported to hospital.