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Professor John Robertson OBA

From Increase in numbers of newly qualified paramedics published 25 August 2025:

Health Secretary Neil Gray has welcomed an increase in the number of newly qualified paramedics joining the Scottish Ambulance Service, with 360 new recruits joining the service since 2023.

New figures show a steep increase in recruitment between 2022-23 and 2023-24, and a total recruitment of 489 since 2020.

The investment in newly qualified paramedics is designed to give the service more resilience, improve capacity and increase the number of patients treated in the community.

A three-year paramedic undergraduate degree programme was launched at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2017 and is now available at five universities across Scotland.

Figures for the last five years, which include graduates from outside Scotland, are:

2020-21 = 24

2021-22 = 58

2022-23 = 47

2023-24 = 179

2024-25 = 181

The number of paramedics currently working in Scotland is 2,156.6 whole time equivalent posts.

https://www.gov.scot/news/increase-in-numbers-of-newly-qualified-paramedics/

All things being equal, NHS England might be expected to have 10 times as many, or around 21 000, but in NHS England, according to the Nuffield researchers, in February 2024, there were only 14 105 whole-time equivalentparamedics.

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/the-nhs-workforce-in-numbers

Scotland, shockingly seems to have 50% more paramedics per head of population than England

Media coverage today?

Media coverage earlier?

Daily Record in October 2024 – Scottish Government must come up with a plan for newly qualified paramedics