Suffolk: Ambulance service needs up to £30m every year to get additional resources to reach targets

The region’s under-fire ambulance service needs up to £30million extra funding every year in order to meet targets and demand, it was revealed today.

Bosses at the East of England Ambulance Service Trust have said they are looking into a methods to boost staff numbers, including paramedics, at a monthly board meeting today.

It comes after a clinical capacity review, seen by this newspaper earlier this week, revealed the service needed up to 300 extra staff and more than 20 double-staffed ambulances on the region’s roads in order to cope.

A recruitment programme has already been launched and the trust is working with clinical commissioning groups in the region in an effort to gain necessary extra funds.

Plans to reduce back office and support service costs are also set to be made – with the aim of saving £20m in three years.

Bosses at the service have admitted they face a long road to meeting all necessary targets, but they are confident they are going in the right direction.

Chief executive, Andrew Morgan, said: “It has taken us a long time to get to this point, but we are starting to make headway.

“The issues we faced were deeper and broader than anyone realised, but we are starting to make progress. Part of that is tackling sickness, which is going in the right direction, as well as the downward trends in our longer response times.

“Making this a high-performing ambulance service is going to require us all to pull together – staff, managers, stakeholders and the public.”