Kidderminster ambulance station sale fears (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
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Kidderminster ambulance station sale fears
7:30am Monday 20th August 2012 in Local
By William Tomaney
THE sale of Kidderminster’s current ambulance station is “further chipping away” at the health service in Wyre Forest, according to a Worcestershire county councillor.
Labour’s Mumshad Ahmed has expressed concerns at West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s (WMAS) “make ready” scheme.
The trust will put the Stourport Road station on the market, replacing it with three new community stations in Kidderminster and one in Stourport.
Vehicle maintenance would take place in Worcester and Bromsgrove, where ambulances would be cleaned and prepared for crews.
Mr Ahmed said not enough ambulances would cover Wyre Forest under the plan but the trust said it would enhance frontline services in the district.
“It is a downturn, a cut to the service,” Mr Ahmed added.
“How will we cope if crews have to take ambulances back to Worcester or Bromsgrove? I call on the Kidderminster Hospital Alliance team to start an alliance to save the ambulance service.”
Alliance spokesman Stephen Brown said the group had to concentrate its efforts on the hospital but he did have some concerns at the “centralisation”
of the ambulance service.
A WMAS spokesman explained: “The number of ambulances serving Wyre Forest will not change. They will start and finish their shifts in Worcester or Bromsgrove.
“There will be ambulances around Kidderminster anyway and they will respond, depending on where they are at the time.”
Former Wyre Forest MP, Dr Richard Taylor, said the scheme needed to plan for any downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital.
“If this goes through and there are major changes to the hospital service, have the ambulance service been given adequate detail to know whether they can cope?”
he added.
The WMAS spokesman said: “I’m sure we would cope. [The joint services review] has sought views from us and we will work with whatever we have, as we always have done.”
Comments(2)
Stephen Brown
says...
9:06pm Mon 20 Aug 12
Unless the Ambulance Service is planning on overlapping shifts, buying more ambulances and/or employing more staff to cover changeover times, or indeed all three I fail to see how this will result in service improvements or even service stability.
Somehow I doubt they will be doing any of the above three things as this is about saving money it seems; but I wait to be corrected.
Surely getting crews, as before, starting shifts in our own station, restocking their own ambulances in time on shift outside of a shout is not only better for providing full cover 24/7 but is also about encouraging greater responsibility to/for the job. Not to mention saving more unneccesary journeys between towns and saving fuel between shifts (and what of those costs?).
That is potentially damaging to ambulance cover in Wyre Forest so I would like the Ambulance Service to come out and offer a better explanation and assurances than those presented in this article which in my opinion fall well short of acceptable.
HowardM says...
11:16am Mon 20 Aug 12