Written question WQ85048

The Emergency Ambulance Services Committee (EASC) continues to work with the Welsh Ambulance Service and local health boards to deliver a range of immediate and sustainable actions to support improvement. These actions are focused on better management of 999 demand in the community, increased capacity, responsiveness to people with time sensitive complaints and ambulance patient handover. Progress has already been made in delivering these actions, but it is clear that further collaborative action is required to enable sustainable improvement.

Over the past two years, Welsh Government investment has enabled the Welsh ambulance service to recruit over 250 additional frontline ambulance staff following recommendations from an independent demand and capacity review.

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.

The Welsh Ambulance Services Trust has developed a proposal for resource requirements for 2022/23 onwards which is following due process through consideration by the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee. In the interim, EASC members have agreed non-recurrent funding of £1.8m to support the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust to maintain a small number of initiatives introduced during winter 2021/22 to improve resilience and enhance capacity

Winter. These include additional capacity contracted from St John Ambulance Wales and safe patient cohorting at Morriston and the Grange University hospitals to enable patients to be offloaded and ambulance resources released prior to being taken into emergency departments.

Recognising the impact ambulance patient handover delays have on patient experience and availability of ambulance resources to respond to calls in the community, the Chief Emergency Ambulance Services Commissioner has also worked with health boards to develop ambulance patient handover improvement plans for each emergency department across Wales. These site-specific plans include timescales and trajectories for improvement. Welsh Government officials will work closely with the Commissioner to monitor progress against these plans and ensure actions are delivered with pace and purpose.

In light of the need for a whole system approach to drive improvement, the Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care Handbook for 2021-26, published earlier this year, sets out our strategic plans, and our expectations of NHS Health Boards and Trusts and Regional Partnership Boards, for a whole-system transformation of access to urgent and emergency care.

Delivery of the six goals will be supported by £25m annual funding made available for the duration of this Senedd term, and will be driven and overseen by a national portfolio programme. A national programme has also been established to support health boards and Regional Partnership Boards to deliver optimal hospital care and improve patient flow, enabling people to return home from hospital when they are ready, freeing up bed capacity in hospitals and reducing delays at the ‘front door’ for patients arriving by ambulance or other means.

I meet regularly with the Chair and Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service and the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee to receive updates on progress against these actions.