Funding to improve Scottish ambulance winter resilience

Funding of up to £11m is being given to the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to help improve resilience this winter.

The money will be used to put 148 new staff in place across the country before the end of the year.

It will also provide 24 extra vehicles for the service in Scotland, including eight ambulances which will be stationed in Glasgow and Lothian – two of the busiest areas.

The funding will also help reduce the need for staff to be on stand-by in some of the more rural areas – with £500,000 being used to ensure priority stations including Aviemore, Golspie and Oban have crews available 24/7.

Pauline Howie, SAS CEO, said: “This winter is expected to see increased demand on healthcare services across the country and our top priority continues to be our patients and staff.

“These additional resources will ensure we continue to deliver the very best patient care to communities while supporting our fantastic staff who have been doing an amazing job each day in the most challenging of circumstances.

“We continue to recruit at pace across the country to strengthen our dedicated workforce – a workforce who have all been remarkable this year.”

Health secretary Jeane Freeman said: “This additional investment will allow the Scottish Ambulance Service to put additional capacity in place in two of the busiest areas in the country, as well as supporting staff in some of the more rural areas through increases in staffing and reduction of requirement for staff to work on-call shifts.”