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<p>A range of measures are in place to reduce ambulance response times. The NHS winter
resilience plan will increase NHS bed capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000
general and acute beds, helping reduce pressure in A&E so that ambulances can
get swiftly back out on the road.</p><p>An additional £250 million has been made available
to enable the NHS to buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of
patients from hospital, and capital for discharge lounges and ambulance hubs. This
will improve flow through hospitals and reducing waits to handover ambulance patients.
This is on top of the £500 million already invested last year.</p><p>NHS England has
allocated £150 million of additional system funding for ambulance service pressures
in 2022/23, alongside £20 million of capital funding to upgrade the ambulance fleet
in each year to 2024/25.</p><p>As announced in the Autumn Statement, the government
is investing an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023-24 and 2024-25 to enable rapid
action to improve urgent and emergency, elective, and primary care performance towards
pre-pandemic levels. The NHS will soon set out detailed recovery plans to deliver
faster ambulance response times.</p>
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