Health bosses across the East of England will have to find £11million more to fund emergency ambulances this year.

A review of the 999 ambulance servive contract was requested by NHS England and NHS Improvement last year.

It has been completed by Deloitte LLP and ORH Limited and the results were presented to East and North Hertfordshire CCG Governing Body on Thursday (May 24).

According to the report, the service will need more investment from the region’s 19 CCGs, if it is to meet the requirements of the National Ambulance Response Programme (ARP).

The service will require around £225million this year, 2018/19, and around £240million for 2019/20.

That increase in funding, says the report, will pay for 330 more full-time staff, who will keep an extra 160 double-staffed ambulances on the road.

According to the report, East and North Hertfordshire CCG will be expected to put £20,038,553 towards the contract. Herts Valleys CCG will be expected to pay £18,932,496.

Meanwhile,  the East and North Hertfordshire CCG’s Annual Report shows the new ‘integrated care service’, which launched in June 2017, has cut the number of ambulance call-outs and patients turning up at Accident and Emergency Departments.

The new service brings together the out-of-hours GP service and  NHS 111, combined with a new ‘clinical advisory service,’ made up of GPs, pharmacists, nurses and mental health professionals.

Patients and professionals who call 111 are automatically passed to the most appropriate service by call handlers.

According to the CCG’s Annual Report the new service has reduced the number of non-emergency ambulance call-outs by around 12,000.

It estimates more than 7000 patients found they didn’t need to visit Accident and Emergency, because they had already spoken to a clinician directly through the new service.