Written question WQ85546

The latest figures for May 2022 showed that 59.3% of Red calls within Aneurin Bevan UHB received a response within 8 minutes, this was the second best performance of any Welsh health board that month. This was also a 3% improvement compared to the same time last year. Median response times for Amber calls have also improved over recent months.

In April 2022, I launched a new national programme which is overseeing an active whole system improvement plan supported by an additional £25m in annual funding for Health Boards and partners. This includes an emergency ambulance improvement plan focused on better managing 999 patient demand in the community, increasing response capacity and establishing alternative pathways to ensure people get the right care, in the right place, first time.

The Chief Emergency Ambulance Services Commissioner has worked with the Aneurin Bevan UHB to develop an ambulance handover improvement plan, which includes trajectories for improvement over the coming weeks and months. Patient cohorting at the Grange University Hospital has also been extended until 31st July 2022 to provide additional capacity for patients to be safely offloaded and release ambulance vehicles to respond to urgent calls in the community. Welsh Government officials will work closely with the Commissioner to robustly monitor progress and ensure actions are delivered with pace and purpose.

A Physician Triage and Streaming (PTAS) service went live within Aneurin Bevan UHB in April 2022, to provide health board clinicians with direct access to the Welsh ambulance service’s incident stack to directly manage appropriate patients in the community, often reducing the need for an ambulance response or conveyance to an Emergency Department. The Welsh Ambulance services Trust is currently working with the health board to train additional clinicians to support this service.

The health board is also working to implement a number of practical measures to improve patient flow including more effective use of its enhanced local general hospitals and community hospitals to divert suitable patients away from the Grange University Hospital.

Improving access and availability of clinically safe alternatives to conveyance to hospital is a key area of focus under Goal 4 of the six goals for urgent and emergency care and we expect health boards to clearly outline how they will drive improvement through their local six goals programme plans. The publication of an all-Wales policy for direct paramedic referral to same day emergency care services is a key enabler for this.

In recognition of ongoing pressures on ambulance services, the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee (EASC) allocated £1.8m to the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust in 2022/23 as a short-term measure to enable immediate continuation of support from St John Ambulance Cymru and provide other additional capacity to meet demand.

Over the past two years, Welsh Government investment has enabled the Welsh ambulance service to recruit over 260 additional frontline ambulance staff following recommendations from an independent demand and capacity review. A further 36 frontline clinicians have also 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.

This year, the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust will receive almost £5m additional funding to increase emergency ambulance capacity and improve response times for the most seriously ill people in our communities.

At our last meeting on 23rd June, I once again communicated my clear expectation to the Chairs and Chief Executives of all seven Health Boards that they must work together, and with the Welsh ambulance service and other partners, to secure improvement in ambulance responsiveness as a priority.