Ambulances – what needs to be done now

Yesterday we reported what happened when North West Ambulance Service

representatives were quizzed by Audlem residents at the Community Action

Meeting about emergency call out times. Today, we are giving some thoughts

about the meeting and the way forward. A number of people at the meeting

have been contacted and they have aired their views about how Audlem

residents can be better served by the ambulance service.

It has to be said that everyone we have spoken to was disappointed with the

responses given by the ambulance service representatives. With very lengthy

call-outs to two recent emergency calls, and others mentioned at the

meeting, one would have hoped the service's response was to say they would

make sure their service would be better in future and did anyone have ideas

that might help. Instead their approach was to defend the indefensible,

disputing what the people involved told them had happened and, even more

curiously, denying what ambulance crews had told residents. It appeared that

they preferred to rely on computer print outs rather than actually talking

to the crews involved. Being in denial of the facts hardly leads to

confidence that a serious problem will be sorted out.

Indeed, the most telling comment of the night was from a resident who said

he felt no more confident after hearing what the ambulance service had to

say. His reaction was echoed by all the people Audlem Online contacted

yesterday.

Why, another resident pointed out, don't the North West Ambulance Service

cross the border to find how the Staffordshire service provides excellent

cover to the whole of that county, in rural as well as urban areas. That quality is under threat, however, as the Government tries to integrate Staffordshire into a

regional West Midlands service, with less onerous targets than the superb

standards the Staffs service is famous for.

On the question of standards, the North West representatives claimed their

service has been improving year by year. Yet the official Government

watchdog that assesses standards in all parts of the NHS, including

ambulances, gave our local providers the lowest possible rating of 'weak' in

terms of 'quality of service'. If that's an improvement, one wonders how bad

their service was previously!

That assessment was for last year when they were called the Mersey Regional

Ambulance Service. Now they've just become the North West Ambulance Service.

Maybe it's the constant re-organisations, name changes, assessments and

'targets' that aren't helping the people on the ground, the ambulance crews,

and doubtless the three representatives who came to Audlem, to provide the

service they want to provide and we want to receive.

Hardly surprisingly, finding a way forward was what people want. They don't

want the ambulance service to think they got out of Wednesday's meeting

safely and can now forget about Audlem. Everyone we've spoken to agrees

there are various points to follow up.

Firstly, there was mention of the Commissioners, the people who control the

purse strings of the Primary Care Trusts. It's difficult to pinpoint the

relationships between the Trusts since the recent regionalisation of the

ambulance service but the nearest West Cheshire representative lives in

Bulkeley in rural Cheshire. Perhaps she should be invited to a Community

Action Meeting so that she can take back a clear message about local

feelings to the very top of the ambulance service.

Secondly, a Parish Councillor is to ask for confirmation of how the

ambulance service looks after Audlem compared with other places. The

representatives said they can provide this and that will be followed up.

Thirdly, the first step to improving emergency cover seems to involve

setting up Community First Responders. Firefighters volunteered to do this

and be trained many months ago. Audlem Parish Council endorsed this in July

last year. So it's reasonable to ask why the NWAS hasn't done anything for

over six months in making this happen. And then to ask when it will happen.

And then ensure it does happen.

If you have any thoughts on this issue and would like to air them, please

contact the Webteam. If anyone believes we are campaigning too hard, it's

because everyone we've spoken to thinks having first class emergency

services is a priority in any community. Everyone at the Community Action

Meeting believes ambulance crews do a great job. But local residents have

been let down recently, people who have paid through their taxes for the

right to a first class service. Wednesday's meeting saw a disappointing

response to these problems from the ambulance service. It seems to be an

issue the community has to continue fighting for. After all, next time, a

poor response to a 999 call could be fatal.

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