Investing in our people

Over the last year, the service has recruited:

• Around 100 paramedics
• 221 health advisors to answer 999 and 111 calls
• 62 clinical care assistants to assist paramedics and technicians
• 55 ambulance care assistants, supporting both pre-planned and on-the-day hospital transportation
• More than 40 clinicians into the Clinical Assessment Service (CAS)

The next cohort of the service’s new in-house paramedic apprenticeship course also began in September, with a further 20 apprentices now at the start of their new career journey.

Patients are now starting to see the benefits of the additional health advisors being in post, which together with a slight reduction in 111 demand over recent months, has resulted in 111 calls being answered quicker, as shown in the graph below.

In addition to this, the service is in the process of recruiting a further 24 volunteer community first responder (CFR) schemes as a result of a £181,080 grant from NHS Charities Together, increasing CFR numbers by 23%. CFRs a crucial part of community response, providing vital life-saving support, or simply a reassuring face, in the minutes between a 999 call being made and an ambulance crew’s arrival.

The new volunteers should be trained and ready to respond in their local communities early next year.

Karen O’Brien, director of people and development, said: “The first phase of our investment plan is investing in our people, not just those delivering care on the frontline but the teams who support them from the side-lines.

“Each of these teams makes a difference to our delivery of clinical care and patient experience and, as recruitment comes to fruition, this will have a positive impact on our performance and, ultimately, improve our service for our patients. It’s fantastic to see that we are already starting to see the additional health advisors reflected in our call answering times.”