Moray SNP News

LOCHHEAD WELCOMES 1,000 NEW PARAMEDIC ANNOUNCEMENT

MSP TO CALL FOR MORAY TO BE FIRST IN LINE

Richard Lochhead MSP has welcomed the Scottish Government’s announcement that a thousand new paramedics will be trained to work in the ambulance service over the next five years.

The announcement comes just days ahead of a meeting between Moray’s MSP and the Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, Pauline Howie, where he will call for Moray to be first in line for new paramedic posts.  The meeting, which will be held in Elgin, has been arranged to discuss ambulance provision locally and concerns about response times to emergencies in Moray.

Following concerns that Moray based ambulances were too often being used to taxi patients between hospitals, Mr Lochhead also tabled parliamentary questions to find out from the Scottish Government how many patient transfers have been carried out by emergency ambulance vehicles, as opposed to by non-accident and emergency patient transport, taking A&E vehicles out of Moray on jobs that other vehicles could do. 

Commenting, Richard Lochhead MSP said:

“The Scottish Government’s announcement that 1,000 new paramedics are to be trained during this parliamentary term is very much welcome and I look forward to discussing how this addition resource can benefit Moray when I meet with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service this week.

“There have been some high profile cases locally which have caused concern about ambulance provision and response times in Moray, which is the background to my meeting with Pauline Howie.  It is vital that the Ambulance Service recognise that there is an urgent issue here in Moray and that action needs to be taken to make sure we have adequate ambulance resources and that they are being used efficiently. 

“Clearly, with an ageing populating there are additional and new pressures on our health service and on patient transport but it is vital that we have a system in place that allows ambulances in Moray to respond quickly to local emergencies, and I will be urging the Scottish Ambulance Service to work with NHS Grampian to ensure that response times do improve.

“I’m confident that we can secure appropriate action that will help ambulance staff, who I know work incredibly hard in often difficult circumstances, and will protect the public who want to know that in the case of an emergency there is a local ambulance available to respond quickly, and these additional paramedic posts announced today will clearly aid that.

The questions tabled by Richard Lochhead are as follows:

Question S5W-01268: Richard Lochhead, Moray, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 06/07/2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many patient transfers between hospitals have been undertaken by accident and emergency ambulance vehicles in each of the last three years, broken down by (a) ambulance station and (b) category of patient transfer, and what average length of time or distance was travelled.

Question S5W-01270: Richard Lochhead, Moray, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 06/07/2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many patient transfers between hospitals are undertaken by non-accident and emergency ambulance vehicles, broken down by ambulance station or equivalent.