There's hardly a day goes by without the Scottish Ambulance Service being in the news.
With an increasing population with the number of elderly now representing 19% of the population the ambulance service required investment to ensure it could meet demand. The SNP recognised this and in 2016, the then cabinet secretary for health, Nicola Sturgeon promised that investment by announcing there will be an EXTRA 1000 paramedic hired to work for the ambulance service over the next five years.
It's been 5 years since Nicola Sturgeon promised the extra 1000 paramedics.
Did she deliver?
When the SNP came to power in 2007 there were 1400 qualified paramedics, 14 years later and despite numerous promises, there are now 1560. Just 160 extra paramedics have been employed over their time in power,
Things are not going to get better any time soon as the SNP have changed the training of paramedics from a 2-year diploma course delivered by the Ambulance Service to a 4-year university course delivered by 5 Universities
- Robert Gordon University.
- University of Stirling.
- Queen Margaret University.
- Glasgow Caledonian University.
- University of the West of Scotland.
"From September 2021 all paramedics in Scotland entering the profession will be required to have an ordinary (BSc level) degree. ... Following registration individual paramedics will also be able to take on new roles including prescribing and advanced practice."
Note the new roles include "prescribing and advanced practice", this is due to the SNP government's new plan to have future paramedics work in GP practices rather than ambulances.
The issues with long ambulance waits are only going to get worse, the quality of care in our GP practices is going to get worse. All of this is a direct result of the incompetence of the SNP.
