Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential risk to patients life at (a) the South Central Ambulance Service and (b) UK wide ambulance services when operating long-term at REAP Level Four.

No such assessment has been made. The designation of Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) levels is an operational matter for the National Health Service. NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that the escalation processes of operating at REAP level four are intended to keep the most vulnerable patients safe during times of heightened pressure on the service.

To alleviate operational pressures locally, work is ongoing to minimise hospital handover delays and increase the amount of clinical decision support and referrals into other community and acute pathways. National initiatives include continuous monitoring and support through the National Ambulance Coordination Centre and extending hospital ambulance liaison officer cover at the most challenged acute trusts.

An additional £4.29 million has been made available to the South Coast Ambulance Service for a number of schemes including:

- Recruitment of 999 call handlers;

- Expanded capacity through additional crews on the road;

- Additional clinical support in the control room and;

- Retention of emergency ambulances to increase the fleet for winter.

Nationally £55 million additional non-recurrent revenue funding has been invested for winter 2021/22. This will increase staff numbers ahead of the winter, assisting trusts to recruit more 999 call handlers and clinicians to work in control rooms and supplementing frontline staffing capacity. NHS England and NHS Improvement also invested £1.7 million into ambulance services in England in September 2021 to support local health and wellbeing initiatives in recognition of the current pressures.