NHS spending on private ambulances in Yorkshire quadruples since pre-pandemic years

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) is spending millions on private providers to boost its resources due to high levels of demand – and that cost is growing.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to the Trust on the sum paid to private ambulance services over the last five financial years.

The Trust’s response shows that in the financial year of 2018/19, £1.34million was spent on private ambulances, yet by 2022/23 this figure had jumped to over £5.8million – a more than fourfold increase.

As one of the 11 ambulance trusts in England, which provide emergency medical care free at the point of use, YAS receives direct government funding for its role.

And according to the data, costs to the private sector have been gradually rising year on year, totalling £2.46million in 2019/20 and £4.50million in 2021/22.

The only exception to the trend was 2020/21, when there was a slight decrease on the previous year to £1.76million, because of the effects of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns.

Despite this rise in expenditure, the number of private ambulances actually dispatched following 999 calls has been falling since 2021.

In total, there were 20,638 instances of private ambulances attending emergency calls in 2021, but in 2022 this figure had decreased to 17,591. As of mid-December 2023, this number had dropped even further to 15,743.

A spokesperson for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said: “We respond to the majority of our emergency patients using our own staff and vehicles.

“However, with continuing high levels of demand and operational pressures across the NHS, our own resources have been complemented by private providers.

“They have also provided support for low acuity and non-emergency transport.

“We have robust safeguards and operating standards in place to ensure that the use of private services maintains our own expectations of the level of care provided to patients.”

It comes as ambulance workers in Yorkshire and across the country took industrial action in a dispute over pay and staffing issues last year.

Members of all three of the ambulance trade unions – GMB, Unite and Unison – took various levels of strike action throughout 2023. YAS put contingency emergency medical plans in place to manage the effects of these strikes.