Question reference: S6W-25536
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 14 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 1 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to reduce waiting times for ambulances sent by NHS 24.
Answer
NHS 24 do not send ambulances to patients. If NHS 24 receive a call from a patient that is deemed to be an emergency, it is passed to a SAS call handler within the Ambulance Control Centres (ACC).
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service and Health Boards to ensure a continuous focus on responding to the most critically unwell patients as quickly as possible.
We continue to invest in supporting the Service and patients, including a record number of additional staff (1388) since 2020. Our £50m funding investment this year is being used, in part, to recruit a further 317 additional frontline staff across the country.
We have also set out a number of principles that health boards should aim to achieve in order to safely reduce handover times at the front door of hospitals. This is an important piece of work that will reduce the pressure on hospital and ambulance services.