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Bid to end ambulance single crews | |
(1 day later) | |
The Scottish Ambulance Service is to receive an extra £4.7m in a bid to end single crewing on emergency call-outs, the Scottish Government has said. | |
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said an extra 40 front line staff would also be taken on to work in the north and south-west of Scotland. | |
She warned it would take about two years to get the staff in place. | |
The funding, spread over the next three years, came amid concern that staffing problems were hitting morale. | |
Ms Sturgeon also said there was no evidence to back-up claims that the service had been manipulating performance data. | |
This government remains committed to ensuring high quality, safe and effective ambulances for all of Scotland Nicola SturgeonScottish health secretary | |
The extra funding will tackle staffing problems in some of Scotland's most remote areas. | |
These include Grampian, Orkney and Shetland and the Highlands in the north and Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire, Dumfries-shire and Galloway in the south west. | |
Ms Sturgeon told parliament: "I hope members will join me in welcoming the fact that routine single crewing of ambulances - for so many years an issue of deep concern in rural Scotland - is now being decisively addressed by this government." | |
The health secretary said it was now time to move on. | |
She added: "This government remains committed to ensuring high quality, safe and effective ambulances for all of Scotland and I am confident that the Scottish Ambulance Service will respond to the challenges it continues to face and deliver this for the patients of Scotland." | |
Extra cash for overtime to keep single crewing to a minimum will continue to be offered ahead of the new staff beginning their jobs. | |
Bullying probe | |
Under questioning from Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Cathy Jamieson, Ms Sturgeon said single-staffing should only take place in circumstances such as "when somebody phones in sick at the last minute and cover practically can not be arranged". | |
Lib Dem Jamie Stone - MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross - demanded to know when single crews would end completely. | |
Ms Sturgeon said "significant progress" had been made towards the goal and the use of single crews would be monitored on a monthly basis. | |
Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "Patients and ambulance staff across the Highlands will also strongly welcome this initiative." | |
Meanwhile, an independent probe into allegations of bullying and harassment in the Scottish Ambulance Service has delivered its report to the chair of the organisation. | |
Scottish Ambulance Service chief executive Kevin Doran and operations director Grace Kennedy took voluntary leave while the investigation, led by NHS Lanarkshire chairman Ken Corsar, was carried out. |
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