Ambulance chiefs promise better performance

Last night's Public Hall meeting with North West Ambulance Service senior managers and local MP Stephen O'Brien led to an assurance from NWAS deputy chief executive Bob Williams that the response times to emergency calls from Audlem would improve.

The meeting, hosted by Audlem Parish Council and arranged by Stephen O'Brien, was the result of concerns following some very lengthy waits in Audlem for ambulances at the end of last year. These were reported in detail on Audlem Online and in front page lead stories in local newspapers. Stephen O'Brien took up the cases with the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt and directly with the NWAS who agreed to discuss the situation at a public meeting in the village.

The evening started with Stephen O'Brien, who is also the Shadow Health Minister with Opposition responsibility for the ambulance service, talking about recent changes which had led to the creation of a regional ambulance service covering the North West from Audlem in the south to the Cumbria/Scottish border. He also highlighted the Staffordshire ambulance service, regarded as the best in the country, which has not been absorbed into a regional structure because its high standards exceed that of the West Midlands service it was scheduled to join.

Bob Williams, who was accompanied by four colleagues from the ambulance service, acknowledged there was a perception that his service was not meeting local needs. He described how the NWAS aimed to achieve the same standard of service across the region but that will take time and resources.

He acknowledged there had been disagreement about the call out times at a previous meeting. This was, in part, because at present the 'official time' of the call out starts once an ambulance has been allocated to a case, not when the 999 call is received. This will change in April next year – the call out time will then start as the call is received, thus making the current target times even tougher to achieve. He described how the number of emergency calls has been increasing by 8% a year, possibly linked to 'out of hours' medical cover.

There were, he explained, difficulties with funding and an ideal level of ambulance cover was very difficult to achieve. This was being tackled by setting up Rapid Response Vehicles, although under questioning he did acknowledge that in some cases this could result in even longer waits for an ambulance while the RRV crew assessed a situation. Many communities were also setting up Local First Responders, often funded in part by local sponsorship.

Over an hour of questioning followed from local residents, covering issues ranging from cross border cover, a key issue to communities like Audlem and Adderley straddling a regional boundary. There was discussion about how effective regional communications centres were and whether ambulances were fitted with Satnav systems so they could find their way to Leighton Hospital!

Stephen O'Brien asked the question "Where's the improvement to come from?". Further questioning from the audience resulted in Bob Williams saying the ambition was to reduce the average 16 minute emergency call out to the Audlem area to 12 minutes. There was general acceptance that in a rural area like this, the 8 minute national target was near impossible with the nearest facilities being in Nantwich or Crewe.

The meeting closed with questions about the role of the Audlem Medical practice in emergencies. Couldn't they be involved in the process as there is already concern about the 'out of hours' service?

Richard Furber, chairman of Audlem Parish Council, who had chaired the meeting, thanked the audience, Stephen O'Brien and Bob Williams and his colleagues for what had been a frank and open discussion.

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