Scottish Ambulance Service boosts staff with 100 new recruits for winter

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has boosted staffing levels with almost 100 new recruits ahead of the busy winter period.

Among the recruits is 25 call handlers, 22 GPs, clinical advisors and advanced practitioners, who have joined the Service’s Integrated Clinical Hub, and 36 ambulance care assistants who will transport patients to planned hospital or clinic appointments.

It also includes a dozen scheduled care coordinators who manage the Service’s patient transport vehicles.

Health secretary Neil Gray said the new recruits will provide a “crucial boost” to the SAS.

Speaking from the Service’s East Ambulance Control Centre in South Queensferry on Tuesday, Gray said: “These new staff members will provide a crucial boost to the Scottish Ambulance Service as they deal with the increased demand and pressure that winter brings.”

He said this is on top of work already underway to recruit an additional 269 newly qualified paramedics this year.

Gray also announced that an additional 72 ambulance care assistants will join the Ambulance Service by April 2026.

It comes less than a week after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the SNP Government of overseeing an “ambulance crisis”.

Figures obtained by Scottish Labour via a Freedom of Information request revealed that more than a third of ambulances are spending longer than an hour waiting outside hospitals.

According to the statistics, so far in 2025, 33.6% of ambulances had turnaround times of more than 60 minutes.

The party said turnaround times can show where patients have to wait in ambulances because there are no beds available in the hospital.

The proportion of ambulances with turnaround times of more than an hour has increased year-on-year since 2020, when the figure stood at just 6.4%.

On Tuesday, Michael Dickson, chief executive of the SAS acknowledged that the Service is under pressure.

“Compared to last year, we’re already seeing an increase in pressure on our services,” he said.

“It’s therefore essential that we continue to bolster our workforce to ensure we can give the best possible service to our patients and also provide support to our existing staff during this demanding time.”

The health secretary said the additional call handlers and recruits to the SAS’s Integrated Clinical Hub will all help to reduce conveyances and ensure patients are directed to the most appropriate care.

“The new staff working in the Hub will help triage less seriously ill patients who don’t need to go to A&E, freeing up ambulances and reducing pressure on emergency departments,” Gray said.

Mr Dickson added: “To help our staff over winter, we’d like to remind the public that if you need urgent care, but it’s not life-threatening, you can call NHS 24 on 111, day or night, or visit your GP during opening hours.”