Ambulance staff have worked more than 2.7m hours of overtime since 2020

Ambulance staff in Scotland have worked more than 2.7 million hours of overtime, figures show, at a cost of almost £74 million to the taxpayer.

Statistics released to the Scottish Conservatives under freedom of information legislation showed 2,718,922 hours of overtime were worked by paramedics, ambulance technicians, care assistants and specialist nurses between 2020 and 2024.

The figure peaked in 2022, when 581,155 overtime hours were worked.

While 2023 was the highest year for overtime spend, costing just shy of £15.7 million.

Figures for 2023 and 2024 also assess how many required hours in the ambulance service are filled by staff working overtime.

For those years, the proportion was 24% and 23% respectively.

Scottish Tory health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, hit out at the figures, saying it was “completely unacceptable” the ambulance service was being “kept afloat” by overtime.

“This will be pushing already exhausted staff beyond breaking point and is completely unsustainable,” he said.

“Relying on overstretched staff to plug gaps in shift will be putting staff as well as patients at serious risk.

“Ambulance crews have been left dangerously understaffed because of years of dire workforce planning by successive SNP health secretaries who are clueless to the scale of the emergency facing them.

“The SNP have also failed to meet their own A&E waiting time target in five years.

“These delays leave ambulances stuck outside hospitals for hours instead of continuing to respond to emergencies.”

The NHS, Dr Gulhane said, is in a “state of permanent crisis”.

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Our staff do a fantastic job helping patients and saving lives across Scotland each and every day.

“To support them, over the last three years, we’ve recruited a record 1,388 staff, introduced 52 additional ambulances, aligned shift patterns to meet patient demand and expanded into 10 new locations as part of our demand and capacity programme.

“Since the recruitment of the additional staff we have seen a reduction in total overtime hours despite significant issues at some hospital sites in relation to turnaround times.

“As with all ambulance services across the UK, we offer overtime to boost shift cover during periods of increased pressure and high demand, and we continue to monitor spend.”