Bid to end ambulance single crews

Ms Sturgeon said she had confidence in the service

The Scottish Ambulance Service is to receive an extra £4.7m in a bid to end single crewing on emergency call-outs, the Scottish Government has said.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said an extra 40 front line staff would also be taken on to work in the north and south-west of Scotland.

She warned it would take about two years to get the staff in place.

The funding, spread over the next three years, came amid concern that staffing problems were hitting morale.

Ms Sturgeon also said there was no evidence to back-up claims that the service had been manipulating performance data.

This government remains committed to ensuring high quality, safe and effective ambulances for all of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon Scottish health secretary

The extra funding will tackle staffing problems in some of Scotland's most remote areas.

These include Grampian, Orkney and Shetland and the Highlands in the north and Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire, Dumfries-shire and Galloway in the south west.

Ms Sturgeon told parliament: "I hope members will join me in welcoming the fact that routine single crewing of ambulances - for so many years an issue of deep concern in rural Scotland - is now being decisively addressed by this government."

The health secretary said it was now time to move on.

She added: "This government remains committed to ensuring high quality, safe and effective ambulances for all of Scotland and I am confident that the Scottish Ambulance Service will respond to the challenges it continues to face and deliver this for the patients of Scotland."

Extra cash for overtime to keep single crewing to a minimum will continue to be offered ahead of the new staff beginning their jobs.

Bullying probe

Under questioning from Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Cathy Jamieson, Ms Sturgeon said single-staffing should only take place in circumstances such as "when somebody phones in sick at the last minute and cover practically can not be arranged".

Lib Dem Jamie Stone - MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross - demanded to know when single crews would end completely.

Ms Sturgeon said "significant progress" had been made towards the goal and the use of single crews would be monitored on a monthly basis.

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "Patients and ambulance staff across the Highlands will also strongly welcome this initiative."

Meanwhile, an independent probe into allegations of bullying and harassment in the Scottish Ambulance Service has delivered its report to the chair of the organisation.

Scottish Ambulance Service chief executive Kevin Doran and operations director Grace Kennedy took voluntary leave while the investigation, led by NHS Lanarkshire chairman Ken Corsar, was carried out.