AN EMERGENCY package worth £14.9million is being considered to improve the ambulance service.

All 19 clinical commissioning groups across the East of England are discussing increasing the amount of money they give the service.

They are also looking to cancel £1.5million in fines the ambulance service owes them for missing targets, such as reaching patients within approved timeframes.

Wendy Tankard, chief contracts officer for the lead commissioning group, said: “Since Dr Anthony Marsh joined the service, he has made progress on restructuring and redesigning its services.

“This week’s meetings will consider approval of one-off additional funding as part of a £14.9million package of contributions from all 19 CCG ambulance consortium members to deliver sustained improvements to the service.”

The groups already provide £230million funding.

Dr Shane Gordon, clinical chief officer at NHS NE Essex CCG said: “We made significant investment in the ambulance service this year. It is one of the best-funded in England.

“The ambulance trust has set out a plan for improving during the year – which we expect them to deliver.”

An ambulance service spokesman said: “We are pleased with the support from our clinical commissioning groups, especially in the significant investment they have put into the ambulance service this year to enable us to make some of these changes.”

The East of England Ambulance Service has been fined £1.2million for failing to get to enough emergencies in time and £300,000 for taking too long to get patients out of ambulances and into hospitals this year.

Dr Marsh said 220 new student paramedics have started this year, with 200 more to come. Other frontline staff, new ambulances and equipment are on the way, while back officen roles are being slashed.

He said: “As more staff are recruited we will start see improvements to the service we give to patients.”