Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve ambulance response times in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group area.

In the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group area, three Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officers are supporting patient handover at acute hospitals. Agency staffing is supporting front line paramedics on the clinical support desk, providing additional clinical triage to help avoid unnecessary ambulance responses. Staff have been redeployed to the Bristol clinical hub as appropriate to work as call takers, dispatch support clinicians and clinical validation. There has been engagement with acute trusts on handover delay issues, including monthly and daily meetings and information on pressures at acute hospital has been used to inform where ambulance patients are transported to.