Ruth Hutton

Scottish Ambulance Service

As the frontline of the NHS in Scotland and with over 4500 members of staff, we provide an emergency ambulance service to a population of over 5 million people serving all of the nation's mainland and island communities. The Scottish Ambulance Service responds to around 1.8 million calls for emergency and non-emergency assistance each year. We attend nearly 700,000 emergency and unscheduled incidents. We transfer around 90,000 patients between hospitals each year and respond to over 150,000 urgent requests for admission, transfer and discharge from GPs and hospitals Our air ambulance service undertakes around 3,500 missions and we co-ordinate the delivery of the ScotSTAR Specialist Transport and Retrieval Service for Scotland which transfers 2,300 of the most seriously ill patients to specialised treatment. Our Patient Transport Service takes over 1.1 million patients to and from scheduled hospital appointments each year. We employ over 4,700 highly skilled staff and operate across the whole of mainland Scotland and its island communities, supporting 14 territorial Health Boards. We are helped by over 1,200 volunteers working in roles such as community first responders and volunteer car drivers.