AMBULANCE chiefs covering Hampshire are spending more than £1million a month for charities and private firms to attend 999 calls, it has been revealed.

Shocking figures found South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) shelled out £13.6million to private and voluntary companies to answer its calls in the year ending April 2016 – the highest of any ambulance trust in the country.

The statistics released under Freedom of Information (FOI) by the BBC also reveal that the NHS spending on private ambulance 999 calls has soared to £68.7million – trebling from £22.1million in 2011/12.

Ambulance chiefs have blamed the increase in emergency calls coupled with a national staff shortage.

NHS England said 999 calls for ambulances rose 4.5 per cent a year.

Unions have attacked “creeping privatisation” and called for more money for staff recruitment.

The ambulance service in England took 861,000 emergency phone calls in March 2016 - which equates to 27,800 a day - compared to 22,400 calls a day in March 2015, a rise of 24%.

Contractors include private firms and charities such as St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross.

SCAS operations director Mark Ainsworth said there was “no alternative”, until trainee paramedics coming through the university system qualified and stressed that the private provider crews are trained to the same standards as NHS crews, providing the same level of response and care at a “comparable cost”.

He said: “Due to a national shortage of paramedics and a year-on-year increase over the last five years in the volume of emergency incidents SCAS is called to, it has been necessary for the trust to employ the services of approved list of private providers in order that we can provide the right level of emergency cover to meet the demands of the local communities we serve. Without the private providers we would currently not have enough resources to get to all the patients who need us.”

But he pointed out that 313 new paramedics within the last 12 months and added: “We continue to actively recruit paramedics both from abroad and within the UK. Over the last two years we have also undertaken extensive internal staff development programmes to increase our frontline clinical workforce from existing staff.”

Alan Lofthouse, Unison lead officer for ambulance workers, accused the Government of “shortsightedness” in failing to train and recruit enough paramedics – leading to private companies stepping in.

He said short-staffing means many workers leaving the NHS due to “pressure” with many working two or three hours over their 12 hour shifts – including one East of England ambulance service trust (EEAST) colleague working 20 hours driving between Norfolk and London.

He added:  “There has been warnings about the level of demand and 999 calls. They are stretched beyond their ability to cope. We are asking the government to invest in more proper training to bring in a new generation of paramedics.”