THE Welsh ambulance service is in the midst of a recruitment programme it expects will enable it to improve its much-criticised performance against emergency targets.

But a full complement of new paramedics will not be on the road until February, and it will be next April before other proposed emergency crew posts are filled.

The Argus revealed exclusively earlier this month that the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust is using private ambulances to help respond to emergency calls during September weekends in South East Wales, because it cannot fill rotas for manning emergency vehicles.

That will continue for the foreseeable future, while recruitment is ongoing.

The trust has issued details of that programme following another set of poor performance results against the eight-minute target for responding to category A emergency calls.

Figures for August show a small improvement on those for May, and it was after the publication of the latter that health minister Mark Drakeford demanded an improvement by September.

But in Gwent, though there was an overall rise in the percentage of category A calls receiving an on-scene response inside eight minutes – to 50.6 per cent – that was largely due to a big improvement in such responses in Blaenau Gwent. In Newport and Caerphilly in August, performance dipped compared to May.

It emerged yesterday too, that in August the emergency ambulance service operated at three-quarters strength in Gwent because of difficulties in filling rotas to staff emergency ambulances and Rapid Response Vehicles.

The amount of emergency vehicle staff hours worked was more than 4,500 short of that expected. Vacancies and sickness are among the issues, and though some staff work extra shifts, some remain uncovered.

Ambulance trust director of service delivery Mike Collins said that, since April, 79 extra staff have been recruited across Wales, including 21 paramedics, “nine of whom went operational in July and 12 of whom went operational last Monday.”

“Twelve Higher Education Institute (HEI) paramedics are expected to be operational from December. The trust has also recruited 46 staff into its urgent care service, all of whom will be operational in mid-November.”

“In addition, 21 paramedics will be appointed in the coming weeks and are expected to be operational by February, and 48 emergency medical technicians will also be appointed, some of will be operational, the remainder by April.”