AN AMBULANCE Service is set to face its ‘most challenging winter’ yet due to ‘unprecedented demand’ already.

At the bi-monthly board meeting of the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust, members received an integrated quality and performance report for June.

Hugh Bennett, assistant director of commissioning and performance, told members that red and amber ambulance response times (red being immediately life-threatening) had increased due to an increase in patient demand.

He said response times continue to be ‘much longer than the Trust would want’ due to ‘unprecedented demand’.

But the board heard how actions to combat this include recruiting an additional 127 full time frontline staff and a Rural Response Model.

Mr Bennett informed members that the speed of answering 999 and 111 calls ‘remains excellent’ but this did deteriorate in June.

Actions include recruitment of call handlers. With 199 full time call handlers in post now, there are concerns that the number of clinicians is ‘slightly below’ that required which means they are not able to meet call back times for lower priority cases.

The report stated: “Demand in recent weeks has been greater than forecast.”

Mr Bennett told members that a summer plan has been activated and further planning has started for the winter period.

However, he said if the Trust is seeing ‘this level of demand now’ then they should be planning for their ‘most challenging winter yet’.

Members heard how Ambulance Care for outpatients has not yet recovered to pre-Covid levels but there is a ‘concern’ that as the system resets, given social distancing requirements, they ‘will not have sufficient levels of capacity to deal with the demands of the system’.

Member Emrys Davies said an open question was raised over whether this is ‘our new normal’.

When discussing workforce experiences and safety, the board heard how sickness levels remained high in June.

Post-production lost hours was also an area of concern as EMS Response lost 12,026 post-production lost hours (PPLHs) in June 21, compared to 9,046 hours to handover and 111,096 hours produced.

However, the board was told how ‘good progress’ has been made with ‘hear and treat’ rates after 999 calls and further work is planned to identify how these can be improved.

Hear and treat is when a patient is given advice/treatment over the phone to avoid ‘unnecessary trips’ to emergency departments’.

Member Martin Turner said there is evidently ‘unprecedented demand’ and there is the ‘winter to look forward to’.

He informed members how ‘everyone is anticipating higher rates of respiratory illnesses’ and there is ‘a lot of planning’ needed in anticipation of that demand.