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An ambulance service is to take extra measures to try to ensure emergency calls receive the most appropriate response.

South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) is rolling out additional clinical hubs aimed at reducing the number of patients taken to emergency departments.

It will introduce five new Unscheduled Care Navigation Hubs this year following trials in Kent in recent months.

The rollout begins in Strood to cover north Kent, with another hub in Polegate, covering East Sussex, opening in the next few weeks.

Secamb said it hoped further sites would come online in Brighton, Banstead and Tongham.

The hubs allow clinicians to be joined by specialist teams from across the local healthcare system to ensure 999 calls are receiving the most appropriate response.

Secamb already operates two multi-disciplinary clinical hubs in Kent - in Ashford and Paddock Wood.

In its first year in operation, the Paddock Wood service helped avoid more than 1,200 emergency department admissions.

Matt Webb, associate director of strategy and partnerships at Secamb, said: “We are really pleased to be in a position to roll out additional multi-disciplinary hubs so that patients right across our region can start to benefit from us working more closely with our hospital and community trust partners."

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