Helen Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve ambulance services.

Jane Ellison

NHS England is working with Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority to improve performance in 2014-15, this includes a workstream looking at best practice.

However, this Government also wants to tackle the root causes of the increasing demand on urgent and emergency care services.

That is why the Urgent and Emergency Care review, led by Sir Bruce Keogh, is currently considering whole system change to the delivery of urgent and emergency care, including new models of delivery of care for ambulance services, such as:

– general practitioner and other clinical support/advice in control rooms and to crews on the ground and how it can reduce conveyance rates (particularly for frail and elderly, mental health, and children) and;

– prevention work available to the Ambulance Service: early diagnosis and risk management.

In addition, as part of the Review, NHS England is working closely with stakeholders (including the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives) to ensure that ambulance services can be further developed and commissioned as a treatment as well as a transport service.

As part of this work, an Ambulance Task Group has been set up and is working with Health Education England to reform the training and careers framework for paramedics – to involve developing a skilled set of advanced practitioners in the Ambulance Service to deliver care closer to home using hear & treat and see & treat models.

The first phase of the Review was published last November. We expect NHS England to be publishing further reports later this year.