The NHS has been accused of “shocking waste” after analysis by a commerce union discovered it was spending greater than £1m every week on non-public ambulances for emergency calls.
Unison – whose members have simply accepted a brand new authorities pay deal – says it had responses from two-thirds of ambulance trusts in England that paid non-public corporations to offer emergency cowl for important sufferers.
It mentioned greater than a dozen non-public corporations have been utilized by trusts in England to attempt to plug holes and meet response instances amid what it referred to as overwhelming demand.
Crews and autos are booked as much as a yr prematurely, Unison claimed, so they’re out there to response to emergency incidents resembling strokes and highway visitors accidents.
It added that spending the cash on non-public 999 care was a “short-term fix, not a long-term solution to the crisis in ambulance services”.
Speaking forward of the union’s annual well being convention in Bournemouth, Unison’s head of well being Sara Gorton mentioned: “This spend on private 999 services shows a lack of long-term planning and is a shocking waste of money.
“It’s nothing greater than a sticking plaster answer. Ambulance providers are in a determined state as a result of the federal government has failed to take a position long run.
“Patients are waiting ages for help to arrive or worse still dying before crews can reach them. Others are stuck in emergency vehicles outside hospitals for hours and hours on end waiting for a bed.”
She urged ministers to supply “proper funding to tackle increasing demand and pay staff properly”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson mentioned: “We are working hard to improve ambulance waiting times which have substantially reduced from the peak of winter pressures in December 2022.
“Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan will permit folks to be seen faster by scaling up group groups, increasing digital wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on the highway. This is on prime of £750m we offered this winter to hurry up hospital discharge and unencumber beds.”
Despite Unison members accepting a pay deal, negotiations proceed with the Royal College of Nursing, which introduced on Friday that its members will strike for 48 hours from 8pm on 30 April after rejecting the supply.
NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and most cancers wards may even take industrial motion for the primary time.
Matthew Taylor, chief government of the NHS Confederation, which represents well being trusts, raised considerations over the opportunity of nurses and junior medical doctors strolling out on the identical time within the dispute over pay.
“We are concerned about the speculation that the possibility of a combination of junior doctors’ and nurses’ action, so both of these things would be a significant escalation,” he informed Sky News.
“It’s very difficult to see how either of those things wouldn’t endanger patient safety and dignity.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has informed the union: “The decision to refuse at this stage any exemptions for even the most urgent and life-threatening treatment during this action will, I fear, put patients at risk.”
The Royal College of Nursing has mentioned there are at present no plans to coordinate strike motion with the British Medical Association.
Source: information.sky.com”