An Ambulance Service Director has confirmed that pay is partly to blame for lack of ambulance staff at Secamb (South East Coast Ambulance Service)

During today’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting at Kent County Council, councillors questioned ambulance service leaders at length about performance and delays.

Cllr Joe Howes (Canterbury) asked the managers at ambulance provider Secamb if pay was the reason for staff shortages, saying “the public sector is not paying as well as the private sector” and noting that the vacancy rate at the ambulance service is still high.

Matt Webb, one of Secamb’s Directors¹, replied saying that “resourcing is a concern” and the service and the sector as a whole is trying to find solutions. He said “every ambulance trust is experiencing this..we have too think about how we lobby and highlight this point to government … to really make this case that resourcing is a concern, and if we don’t start to look at how we retain our good people, we’re only going to struggle further down the line.” Webb also said the problem was not so much recruitment as retention of staff, stating that the problem stems from pay and conditions. He said “It’s around pay, it’s around wellbeing concerns and it’s around opportunity.“

Councillors grilled the ambulance service representatives Ray Savage and Matt Webb for close to an hour, expressing grave concerns about ongoing response time issues and the wellbeing and mental health of ambulance staff.

Matt Webb explained that the ambulance delay problems are both down to ‘capacity and demand‘. Demand has risen due to the health service’s reduced activity during Covid peaks, and the capacity problem was described by Webb as ‘cyclical’. He explained that handover delays between ambulances and A&E are caused in large part by A&E having problems discharging patients into the community, therefore it is a ‘system flow‘ problem in community care that causes a backlog in acute care that then causes a backlog for ambulance crews and then patients waiting for an ambulance.

Matt Webb also expressed his view that ambulance demand is expected to continue to rise throughout the summer as Covid infections are rising again, and emphasized that the struggle to hit target times at Secamb are replicated in trusts across the country.

Ray Savage, Strategy and Partnerships Manager at Secamb, was also present and referred to the leadership problems at Secamb highlighted by the recent CQC report, noting that the trust is working to address the issues.

Carly Jeffrey, 7.7.2022.

1. Matt Webb, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships & System Engagement, SECAMB.

A recording of the KCC HOSC meeting can be viewed here.

Cllr Howes’ question is at 31.40 mins; Webb’s comments on retention, pay and staff wellbeing are at 33.25 mins; Webb’s comments on lobbying the government, 35.12 mins; Webb’s comments on system flow, discharge and community care, 44.04 mins.