The government announced almost £450 million will go towards expanding urgent and emergency care facilities, which includes almost 500 new ambulances being introduced by March 2026.

This is part of a wider plan to shorten A&E waiting lists, with 800,000 fewer patients expected to wait more than four hours at A&E, and improve patient experience of emergency services. The investment will also go towards around 40 new Same Day Emergency Care and Urgent Treatment Centres, which will treat and discharge patients in the same day, avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions.

Urgent and emergency care services are under growing pressure in England, with 140,000 accessing them every day. Since 2010-11, demand has almost doubled, with ambulance service usage rising by 61 percent. A&E waiting time targets have not been met for over a decade, while the 18-minute standard for category two (emergency) ambulance calls have not been met since the pandemic.

There are also plans to deliver up to 15 mental health crisis assessment centres, which means that those experiencing a crisis will not have to wait in A&E for hours, and offer timely access to specialist support. This aligns with the NHS’s big mission to move healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, and so the new funding supports this.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said: “No patient should ever be left waiting for hours in hospital corridors or for an ambulance which ought to arrive in minutes.

“We can’t fix more than a decade of underinvestment and neglect overnight. But through the measures we’re settled out today, we will deliver faster and more convenient care for patients in emergencies.

“Far too many patients are ending up in A&E who don’t need or want to be there, because there isn’t anywhere else available. Because patients can’t ge ta GP appointment, which costs the NHS £40, they end up in A&E, which costs around £400-worse for patients and more expensive for the taxpayer.

“The package of investment and reforms we are announcing today will help the NHS treat more patients in the community, so they don’t end up stuck on trolleys in A&E. Hundreds of new ambulances will help cut the unacceptably long waiting times we’ve seen in recent years. And new centres for patients going through a mental health crisis will provide better care and keep them out of A&E, which are not well equipped to care for them.

“By shifting staff and resources out of hospitals and into communities, and modernising NHS technology and equipment, our Plan for change will make sure the NHS can be there for you when you need it, once again.”

Other initiatives to improve care in the community include more paramedic-led care at the scene of the accident, increasing the number of patients seen by urgent community response teams, better use of virtual wards, and publishing league tables on performance to encourage better transparency and public accountability.