Sheffield health service raise funds to buy new ambulance by diverting less serious calls to other teams

Sara Story, interim director of adult social care, said it meant they would now have enough to buy another ambulance.

"If 999 or 101 get a call in from somebody who’s fallen but are not injured they can pass that call on to our council care responders who will go out, pick the person up and help them and it avoids a blue light,” Sara said, during a meeting of Sheffield's health and social care committee.

She added: “Since we’ve been doing it, which is roughly just over a year, we’ve saved on average one or two ambulances a week so we’ve probably got enough to buy our own by now and we hope to extend that further.

POLITICS: 'We are on your side' - Politicians show support for striking university staff in Sheffield

"We’ve just added to that really recently the Home First service.

“Sometimes an ambulance goes out to people and it’s just something to do with the home environment or some practical issue that needs sorting so we added some of our social care services to the directory for 101 and 999 which is working really well."

They are also planning to increase the coverage of the service - which currently operates between working hours Monday to Friday - to 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

POLITICS: 'We are left housebound if it's icy' - elderly couple condemn Sheffield Council's gritting policy

Councillor Cate McDonald, chair of the committee, said: "I’m pleased to see we are making progress.

She added: “I’m also really pleased to see some of the examples of joined up services as well.

“If somebody doesn’t need to go to hospital, a hospital is not a healthy place for anyone to be so I’m happy to see some of the innovations that have taken place."

POLITICS: New bar and restaurant plans for Sheffield landmark divide opinion