In an ideal world we would have a National Health Service that is fully staffed, financed and resourced to everyone’s satisfaction.

Unfortunately, however, we do not live in such a world, and health care – be it medical treatment or emergency response – is as under pressure as any other publicly-funded body or organisation.

That said, there will be inevitable concerns among the public at the news that Yorkshire Ambulance Service has had cause to call upon “private ambulances” in the past to help with the workload when the main ambulance fleet and the teams of highly-trained paramedics are stretched elsewhere.

We have faith in the ambulance service purely because it provides such an unparalleled body of men and women providing an exemplary emergency cover. Anything less will be not acceptable to many.

However, the ambulances that have been used are from providers such as the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance, themselves highly-trained professionals who are adept at dealing with emergency situations. And the majority of instances in which outside contractors have been used is for patient transport rather than attending incidents.

There is, though, an extra cost attached to buying in the services of private operators, and in the last three quarters of 2013 this bill amounted to £2.8 million, an increase of £1.7 million on the previous year.

It is perhaps the cost of this, rather than the public safety aspect, which will cause raised eyebrows in some quarters. But unless the ambulance service is in receipt of increased funding to put more ambulances and emergency crews on the road, it is perhaps an expenditure that cannot be avoided.