Boost for Aberdeen: staff share base with SFRS

A number of Aberdeen ambulance staff have co-located to the city’s Central Fire Station in a move which will benefit patients in Aberdeen.

As part of the Scottish Ambulance Service’s Demand & Capacity Programme, an additional 30 A&E staff and 9 Patient Transport Service (PTS) staff are set to join the Service in the Grampian region by March this year, which is part of a wider nationwide recruitment drive where 566 new staff are set to join the Service by March (2022).

To accommodate the increase in resources in Aberdeen, 12 staff – eight paramedics and four technicians - and one A&E Ambulance are now operating out of the fire station on Mounthooly Way. All other staff, including six new frontline recruits and additional PTS staff, will work out of the current base.

The move to the Central Fire Station is a boost for ambulance service provision in the area. As in other co-locations, staff will work alongside fire service staff out of a separate room and they will be dispatched to incidents as per normal procedure through one of our three Ambulance Control Centres (ACC).

Milne Weir, Regional Director for the North, said: “We are delighted to have moved to this new base alongside our emergency services colleagues at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and look forward to working with them and building on existing relationships.

“There is now an aspect of multi-agency working and training that can take place between both services and as well as being a great new base for our staff, this move ensures that we continue to provide the very best care to patients in these communities..

“We are committed to providing a safe and effective level of response in the Grampian region at all times and the past 12 months have been the busiest in terms of recruitment for the Scottish Ambulance Service.”

Area Commander Chay Ewing is the Local Senior Officer for Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

He said: “This is an excellent opportunity for us to further consolidate an already strong working relationship between Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

“Co-location of services brings a number of benefits for our organisations, but particularly in terms of the opportunities for regular joint working and interaction, which will benefit the local community. We would like to welcome our Scottish Ambulance Service colleagues into Aberdeen’s Central Fire Station.”

SFRS and SAS closely collaborated to ensure that the appropriate steps were taken prior to the move regarding COVID government guidelines, social distancing and infection control procedures.