Tag: ambulances
‘Shocking waste’: NHS is spending £1m a week on private ambulances for emergencies, union says
Thousands more hospital beds and 800 new ambulances promised to ‘fix’ emergency care
Hospitals will get 5,000 more beds and 800 ambulances to ease pressure on A&E
HOSPITALS are to get 5,000 more beds and 800 ambulances to ease the pressure on emergency departments.
The proposals are part of PM Rishi Sunak’s two-year NHS recovery plan.
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Hospitals are to get 5,000 more beds and 800 ambulances to ease the pressure on emergency departments[/caption]
He called it “ambitious and credible” — it will be backed by a £1billion fund which will also provide 100 mental health response vehicles.
The PM will set out his ideas today on a visit to the North East with NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard.
He said: “Urgent and emergency care is facing serious challenges but we have an ambitious and credible plan to fix it.
“It will take time to get there but our plan will cut long waiting times by increasing the number of ambulances, staff and beds — stopping the bottlenecks outside A&E and making sure patients are seen and discharged quickly.
“If we meet this ambition, it will represent one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times in NHS history.”
The move comes after ministers promised a major expansion in community care to keep patients away from hospitals.
Ministers have also announced 3,000 hospital at home beds will be created this year.
It is hoped about 50,000 people a month could eventually be cared for at home, monitored using gadgets and apps.
And proposals are in place for three quarters of A&E patients to be seen within four hours by spring next year.
More than half of county’s ambulances queue outside one hospital on New Year’s Eve
December strikes: 1,200 troops to cover for ambulances and border force
Troops training to drive ambulances as ministers try to limit strike disruption
Strikes: Decision on training troops to drive ambulances ‘not far off’
Army could be called in to drive ambulances and staff hospitals under emergency plan to save the NHS from winter strikes
THE Army could drive ambulances and stand in for frontline hospital roles under emergency plans to deal with a possible winter of strikes.
Health and defence officials are drawing up a contingency strategy as ambulance drivers and paramedics consider joining nurses on the picket lines in the coming months.
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The Army could drive ambulances during possible winter strikes[/caption]
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The Army was also called in during the last ambulance drivers’ walkout in 1989[/caption]
As first reported by the Times, the Government could utilise the military aid to the civil authorities protocol (Maca) to keep key services in the NHS running during major walkouts.
They could also answer 999 calls, in addition to other tasks, the Guardian reported earlier this month.
Maca was used during the coronavirus pandemic to help struggling health staff with vaccines, testing and the delivery of protective equipment.
No formal request for help has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care to the Ministry of Defence.
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The last time ambulance drivers went on strike from September 1989 to February 1990, the army, navy and air force all helped to transport patients for medical attention.
Earlier this week union bosses insisted cancer care will not be stopped for nurses’ strikes.
A Government spokeswoman said: “We are working with the NHS on a range of options to manage disruption to health and care services during industrial action.
“Hospitals will do everything they can to ensure patients and the public are kept safe, however planned appointments may need to be cancelled and emergency care prioritised to those in need of urgent care only.”
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The prospect of strikes being called off ahead of Christmas appeared bleak, as Transport Secretary Mark Harper said public sector pay rises in line with soaring inflation are “unaffordable”.
The Cabinet minister said there “simply isn’t the money” to meet the demands of workers preparing to take industrial action but hinted at progress in talks over rail strikes.
Mr Harper indicated a change in the mandate for negotiations and said pay rises could come if rail workers accept reforms, after holding “positive” talks with Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch.
Nurses are set to stage their first UK-wide strike action next month, as they join transport and postal workers on the picket lines in disputes over pay and conditions.
Mr Harper told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “Inflation-matching or inflation-busting pay rises are unaffordable.
“I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can’t be inflation-busting pay rises.
“There simply isn’t the money to pay for those given the context, we haven’t seen those in the private sector either, the private sector pay rises have generally been settled below the level of inflation, which I accept is difficult for people.”
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that rail bosses “will have the ability to reach a deal”, when pressed about whether they have the mandate to properly negotiate with the RMT.
“But we have to be able to have that reform package negotiated, because it’s only that that throws up the savings,” Mr Harper said.
“I do not have a bottomless pit of taxpayers’ money to throw at this problem.”
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Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out on December 15 and 20 if the dispute is not resolved.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has urged the nursing union to “come back to the table” for talks but he is declining to discuss pay, instead wanting to talk about conditions such as pension arrangements, holidays, rosters and the availability of free coffee.
Ambulances must halve the time it takes to reach heart attack patients, demands Jeremy Hunt after NHS cash boost
AMBULANCES must halve the time it takes to reach heart attack and stroke patients, the Chancellor said as he laid out an NHS cash boost.
Jeremy Hunt pledged a £3.3billion-per-year health budget increase for the next two years in yesterday’s autumn statement.
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The official NHS target is 18 minutes to reach a patient but October saw the worst average on record at just over an hour for category 2 calls[/caption]
He said bosses must use the bump to get 999 wait times down.
Paramedics must get to urgent category 2 calls in an average of 30 minutes in 2023-24, the statement said.
The official NHS target is 18 minutes but October’s average was the worst on record, with a typical category 2 patient waiting one hour, one minute and 19 seconds for an ambulance.
England’s average has not been below 30 minutes since May 2021, NHS figures show.
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Mr Hunt said: “As a former Health Secretary, I know how hard people are working on the frontline and how much they are struggling after the pandemic.
“The biggest issues are workforce shortages and pressures in the social care sector.”
But he demanded “Scandinavian quality alongside Singaporean efficiency, both better outcomes for citizens and better value for taxpayers”.
The autumn statement said NHS chiefs will lay out plans in the new year to get the health service back on track.
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They will set targets for “year-on-year” improvements to A&E delays and make sure no patients wait longer than two weeks for a GP appointment.
NHS finance chiefs warned in the summer that England faced such a shortage of cash that it might have to cut back cancer and mental health services.
But Amanda Pritchard, CEO of NHS England, welcomed Thursday’s budget boost.
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She said: “While I am under no illusions that NHS staff face very testing times ahead, particularly over winter, this settlement should provide sufficient funding for the NHS to fulfil its key priorities.
“As ever, we will act with determination to ensure every penny of investment delivers for patients.”