South Western Ambulance Service
| South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust | |
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| Area: | South West England |
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| Population: | 5.3 million residents |
| Size: | 51,871 km |
| Staff: | 4,000+ |
| Chief Executive (Chief Ambulance Officer): | Ken Wenman |
| Stations: | 96 + 6 Air Bases |
| HQ: | Exeter |
| Website: | www |
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is the organisation responsible for providing ambulance services for the National Health Service (NHS) across South West England (the counties and unitary authorities of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, the Isles of Scilly, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire). On March 1, 2011 SWASFT was the first ambulance service in the country to become a Foundation Trust. The Trust merged with neighbouring Great Western Ambulance Service on 1 February 2013.
SWASFT serves a population of more than 5.3 million, and its area is estimated to receive an influx of over 17.5 million visitors each year. The operational area is predominantly rural but also has large urban centres including Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter, Truro, Bath, Swindon, Gloucester, Bournemouth and Poole.
The Trust’s core operations include:
It is one of ten Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services and employs more than 4,000 mainly clinical and operational staff (including Paramedics, Emergency Care Practitioners, Advanced Technicians, Emergency Care Assistants, Ambulance Care Assistants and Nurse Practitioners) plus GPs and around 3,200 volunteers (including community first responders, BASICS doctors, fire co-responders and volunteer PTS drivers).
The Trust is one of the largest in England. It covers an area of 51,871 km and 827 miles (1,331 km) of coastline.
In 2015/16 approximately one in eight 999 calls to South Western Ambulance Service are treated over the telephone. Hear and treat is 12.7% of calls and means the patient receives clinical advice over the telephone. For 36.4% of incidents the patients experience see and treat, when the patient receives treatment or advice at the scene of the incident. In a further 7.7% of incidents, the patient is taken to a non-emergency hospital department so that might mean a community hospital or minor injuries unit. The remaining incidents result in a patient being taken to a hospital emergency department, this means the majority of incidents (56.8%) result in a patient not being conveyed. SWASFT is the best performing ambulance service in the country for non-conveyance rates. In addition approximately 62% of patients taken to hospital are admitted – this is again the highest (best) performance for an ambulance trust in the country. This means that when SWASFT takes a patient to an emergency department they are likely to be admitted, not simply treated and discharged, therefore confirming that is the right place for them to receive the care they need.
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