150 new Scots ambulance jobs after funding boost

The Scottish Ambulance Service will see 150 new recruits after the funding boost was announced. Picture: Complimentary

Health Secretary Alex Neil said the new technicians will give the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) “more flexibility”.

Recruiting extra staff has allowed bosses to switch ambulance workers to a new pattern of working hours, introduced in the wake of a row about rest breaks.

The extra ambulance technicians will “help all staff response to those emergency cases who need them most”, Mr Neil said.

Ambulance crews worked a 40-hour week but were paid for just 37.5 hours, with 2.5 hours as unpaid rest breaks, during which the control room did not contact them.

But controversies such as the death of 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson, who had a cardiac arrest in Moray in 2010, brought the practice into focus: an ambulance technician was on a meal break and did not attend the emergency even though he was stationed near her home.

Staff will now work a 37.5-hour paid week, which includes rest periods, and are required to attend emergency calls throughout their shift.

Mr Neil met the group of new-starts at the start of their training course at the SAS academy in Glasgow.

“These 150 new technicians are destined for posts all over Scotland. Students in the group I met today will be heading for various locations from Gairloch to Aberdeen to Stranraer,” he said.

“The ambulance service is absolutely vital to Scotland and it is important that we have the right number of staff working in the right way for our patients. This £6.8 million investment demonstrates this Government’s commitment to our NHS workforce.

“The new staff will be particularly welcomed in our remote and rural areas, giving additional resilience and more flexibility to the service.

“We know that the priority of ambulance staff is their patients and the new ways of working which these additional staff will support will in turn help all staff to respond to those emergency cases who need them the most.”

SAS chief executive Pauline Howie said: “The Scottish Ambulance Service Academy has trained a record number of new recruits in the last year, which ensures that we will continue to operate with appropriate clinical skill mix and resources across the country, delivering high standards of patient care and safety.

“Every day, ambulance staff go the extra mile for their patients with a strong sense of professionalism and commitment that starts from the day they join the service as a new trainee.”