NWAS welcomes more than £6m in funding to recruit more staff ahead of winter

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) will receive more than £6 million from NHS England/NHS Improvement to spend on more resources ahead of winter this year.

Part of a pot worth £55 million, the money is being handed to the country’s ambulance trusts to help recruit more 999 call handlers, crews, and clinicians to work in control rooms.

It will also cover the recruitment and retention of liaison officers who manage the handover of patients between ambulances and hospitals.

999 calls have grown increasingly since the end of March and in June, NWAS took more than 155,000 emergency calls – 48,000 more than the same period last year and 23,000 more than 2019.

NWAS Director of Operation Ged Blezard says: “The news of this additional funding is a welcome boost at a time when we are experiencing unprecedented demand.

“All our staff are working incredibly hard at the moment, and this money will allow us to expand our resources both on the road and in our emergency call centres.

“We are due to finalise those plans in the coming weeks.”

In a letter to the ten trusts, NHS leaders said that the funding would allow services to prepare for the winter period and improve performance.

Each trust’s share is based on the number of patients they serve locally, giving NWAS just under £6.25 million.

NWAS will now start working together with local services on how to reduce average waiting times for category one (life-threatening), two (emergency) and three (urgent) 999 calls, putting the measures in place as soon as possible.

Anthony Marsh, National Strategic Adviser of Ambulance Services, said: “Despite the pandemic, ambulance services have continued to respond quickly to the public when they needed emergency care.

“While ambulance trusts are already extremely busy, the NHS is ensuring that services have the staff they need to deal with increased demand.

“If you need urgent care, I’d urge you to go to NHS 111 Online or call 111 so that you can be signposted to the best option for your needs.

“And if you have been inspired by the phenomenal efforts of NHS staff over the course of the pandemic, there are a variety of vital ambulance roles available, including as a call handler, and I’d encourage anyone considering a career in the NHS.”

The investment comes alongside record numbers of A&E attendances in major departments, with more than 2.1 million patients attending in June, on top of delivering the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history and the fastest in Europe with 65 million people protected so far.
 

Read more: 'Unprecedented' pressure at hospitals hit by staff shortages and rising demandPublished: 27 July 2021