AMBULANCE bosses spent more than £14million on private ambulances to speed up response times and transport patients to hospital.

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) is the second biggest spender on the vehicles nationwide. Experts have labelled the spending “concerning” and say paramedics are under increasing pressure.

In 2016/17, the EEAST spent £14,012,429, however the year before, the service had a bill for less than half of that - at £6,639,335.

Total NHS spending on private ambulances has risen by more than a fifth in two years to reach over £78 million, data collected by the Press Association shows.

The figures also show that some trusts are spending more on temporary staff, including paramedics.

South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust spent the most across the year 2016/17 with £16,336,000.

Dr Taj Hassan, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s president, said: “It is concerning that trusts are having to use part of their budget for private ambulances, and serves to highlight the current levels of demand emergency departments are facing.

“Under-resourced departments are struggling with overcrowding and ‘exit block’, when patients cannot be moved in a timely manner to a ward.”

Dr Hassan also doubted the quality of training offered by private firms. He said: “They may be poorly equipped, have poor clinical governance, poor infection prevention, and a lack of or inappropriate equipment.”

Jonathan Street, spokesman for the College of Paramedics, said NHS ambulance staff were “under heavy pressure due to growing numbers of 999 calls”.

He added: “These services are increasingly reliant on paramedics and other ambulance clinicians within the private sector to meet the demand, which involves considerable cost.”