News alert / Winter workforce boosted

With warnings of significant pressure due to winter viruses over the next few months, hundreds of new staff have joined the emergency care workforce, according to NHS England. The number of 999 and 111 call handlers is up on last December (8% and 5% respectively) – there are now 2,600 handlers taking 999 calls, up from 2,400 last December, and the 111 service has 4,645 call handlers, up 207 (4.7%). The latest weekly figures show that in the week ending 3 December, the NHS 111 service answered almost twice the proportion of calls within a minute (up from 36% to 67%) as the same week last year. The NHS also recruited more than 1,700 additional paramedics and ambulance support staff between December 2022 and August 2023. Recruitment efforts have also meant that 1,417 more support staff are in place, with a total of 39,743 now working in emergency services.