Justin Welcomes £12 Million Of Additional Funding To Expand Local Ambulance Services

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson has welcomed plans laid out by South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (SWASFT) on how it will use £12 million of extra funding to recruit 240 additional frontline staff.

SWASFT announced its 'Our People Plan' to set out how it will best utilise the £12 million in additional funding it has secured from commissioners for the next two years.

The additional funds would mean the Trust can recruit more than 240 additional frontline staff to help meet demand and deliver even higher standards of patient care across the South West. The Plan will also ensure that the Trust can recruit and accommodate the additional people the extra funding has enabled It identifies the most effective location of the Trust’s people and vehicles in order to meet demand, provide the highest quality care for patients, and moves the Trust towards meeting national performance standards.

As well as improving performance standards, the additional staff will also improve staff welfare. The Trust hopes the additional staff will significantly reduce the so-called ‘call stack’ in the 999 Clinical Hubs - the number of incidents in the clinical hub that have been triaged but are waiting for a vehicle resource to be allocated and dispatched.

Staff in the clinical hubs often find the call stack one of the most stressful and frustrating elements of their job and these additional resources will allow for the Trust to significantly reduce the number of calls waiting in the stack.

The Plan will require a number of changes and improvements to the Trust’s estate. The Trust has identified a 2-year estates plan that sets out a number of priority actions to be implemented in support of the plan. However, any revision to the station location of frontline crews and vehicles will not impact on patients or the public.

This new plan builds on the record investment currently being received by the NHS, including a 70th birthday announcement of £394 million extra a week by 2023-24.

Swindon specifically has felt the benefits of extra NHS investment, with recent investment including:

- £29.573 million of new Government funding to deliver a modern Integrated A&E, which will provide a reconfigured and rightsized Emergency Department as well as a transitional care facility.

- £769,255 to help alleviate winter pressures on the NHS and adult social care by helping get patients home quicker and freeing up hospital beds

- £6.7 million for more ambulances across Swindon and the South West

- £13 million capital funding for the Brighter Futures Radiotherapy Centre

Justin Tomlinson MP said: “The additional funding is great news, and I am pleased the Trust has clearly set out how it will utilise this to benefit patients. The effect that the new staff will bring on the working environment for frontline ambulance staff is also very welcome. All ambulance staff have a very tough job, often helping people in very challenging and stressful circumstances – so anything that can improve their working environment is a very good thing.”