On 22 January 2026 East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) announced a £4 million investment to strengthen its Clinical Assessment Hub across the East Midlands — a programme the research brief says will target high-call-volume suburbs such as Carlton in Gedling Borough.
EMAS says the investment will expand and strengthen its Clinical Hub and allow for the recruitment of additional specialist clinicians and upgrades to call-handling systems. The Research Dossier specifies 45 new specialist-clinician roles, while EMAS press materials note the service has recruited ‘over 50 additional clinicians since the summer of 2025’ as part of recent expansions. The funding is intended to speed access to clinical advice for people who dial 999 so callers receive rapid, clinician-led assessment rather than an automatic ambulance dispatch when it is not clinically required.
The investment will bolster clinician-led telephone assessments delivered from EMAS emergency operations centres and, according to the Research Dossier, is intended to support new real-time video triage capabilities. EMAS’s public materials continue to emphasise that telephone-based clinical assessment is core to the service; the Research Dossier also highlights concerns about a ‘digital divide’ for people who lack smartphones.
For Gedling Borough Council the change is significant: the Research Dossier notes Carlton has a relatively high proportion of older residents who often need clinical assessment but do not always require hospital admission. Gedling representatives have said local community resilience and support plans will need updating if more patients are managed at home after telephone or remote clinical assessment. EMAS and local partners say the overall aim is to reduce avoidable ambulance dispatches and support efforts to meet national response-time targets for urgent calls.
Local media, including the Nottingham Post, and residents in recent years have raised concerns about long waits and ambulance handover delays at hospitals such as the Queen’s Medical Centre. The Research Dossier gives an implementation timeline: hiring for the new roles is scheduled to begin in February 2026 with technical upgrades expected to be live by June 2026; EMAS’s public announcement does not include those specific dates, so reporters should attribute this timeline to the Research Dossier unless EMAS provides a direct confirmation.
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