Ambulances outside A&E at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Ambulance Watch: Health minister urged to act
Adam Gretton, Health correspondent
Saturday, March 9, 2013
11:17 AM
The minister for ambulance services has yet to visit East Anglia to see the scale of the problem facing the under-performing East of England Ambulance Service, the EDP can reveal.
Health minister Earl Howe, who is responsible for urgent and emergency care as part of his role in the coalition government, last visited the region three years ago to open a new ambulance trust headquarters in Cambridgeshire.
But the hereditary peer has yet to visit Norfolk or Suffolk to see for himself the problems the East of England Ambulance Service is facing in failing to hit response time targets and its ongoing issues over slow ambulance turnaround times at hospitals.
The minister, who has been in a health role since 2010, yesterday declined an interview with the EDP with a Department of Health spokesman saying he was “too busy”.
Colleagues said the minister was well aware of the problems facing the East of England Ambulance Service and he was due to meet all East Anglian MPs about the performance of the trust later this month in Westminster.
North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, below, who is health minister for care and support within the coalition government, said he had met Lord Howe on a number of occasions to discuss his concerns about national ambulance response targets and leadership at the ambulance trust, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
“I have had a pretty relentless focus on this for the last 18 months and my great frustration is that I have had assurances from the ambulance trust that things have changed and they have not and I will not relent until it is sorted,” he said.
East Anglian MPs are set to meet the chief executive and chairman of the ambulance trust next week to find out how the NHS trust plans to improve. A report by the Care Quality Commission is also due to be published next week after an unannounced inspection by the health regulator.
Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney, said some MPs were keen to see the return of the East Anglian Ambulance Trust, which covered Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, but merged with three other “incompatible” counties in 2006. “I think we would have to say that this is a merger too far. It is a mistake and lessons need to learnt.”
“It would be very costly to end it and we have to see what we can do to make it work,” he said.
The ambulance service is currently failing to respond to 75pc of A8-category emergency calls within eight minutes and 95pc of A19 calls in 19 minutes. Response times in Norfolk are the worst across all six counties with crews reaching just 62.7pc of life-threatening calls in eight minutes in January.
See today’s EDP for more.
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9 comments
This story has made me so angry. It took an ambulance 2 HOURS to get to my grandfather on Thursday night, when he was lying in pain. He died last Saturday having devoted his life to the medical profession and caring for others and this is how he was treated.
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Elly
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Its all been said a million times over already. Check out the trust boards (N&NUH and EEAS), once you have researched you will soon realise these people are wholly inappropriate to run our NHS and we should start lobbying for their immediate removal. We need real people who want to make things work, not the current politically-appointed bureaucrats and cronies.
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Police Commissioner ???
Monday, March 11, 2013
So just how many A&E departments have been shut in the last few years? Could that be why there are bottlenecks at A&E - not enough room, not enough staff, too few locations... its not rocket science Mr Lamb but it is our lives you play with.
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Richard Woods
Saturday, March 9, 2013
The Ambulance Service is giving a 2nd rate service at its best, the NNUH isn't bothered either.. a total crap service. do you agree Rolf ?? lol ...
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Footyboy16
Saturday, March 9, 2013
There is one draw back to putting more ambulance crews on the run. That means more arrivals at hospitals!!! which at the moment seems to be the sticking point for the current crews to get back out on the road. so the investment needs to be in the a&e departments and educating the public what is a serious case that needs immediate hospital treatment
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k day
Saturday, March 9, 2013
There is one draw back to putting more ambulance crews on the run. That means more arrivals at hospitals!!! which at the moment seems to be the sticking point for the current crews to get back out on the road. so the investment needs to be in the a&e departments and educating the public what is a serious case that needs immediate hospital treatment
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k day
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Norman Lamb, Therese Coffey, and Dan Poulter are all government MPs that voted for NHS cuts. Lamb is a health minister who picks and chooses what he is going to take responsibility for. They should all be held accountable by the EDP.
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omnishambles
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Well said MIKEJ. The Ambulance Service is far from perfect but the fundemental problem is the NNUH. Ambulance arrivals at other hospitals in the region are nowhere near as frequent. We have a new Interim Chief (lets hope he get the job permenantly) who has done more in the past at few weeks than the previous incumbent could achieve in the whole of the time he was in post. Get the NNUH sorted out then things will improve. Also for the longterm, lets ditch Essex and Beds and Herts and go back to what we did best. Sucking up to MP's who are part of a government hell bent on privatistion is a waste of time too !
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Rolf
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Here we go again.. Forget the ambulance service. They cannot do the impossible.. Extra ambulances and technicians will not help. Urgent extra A&E staff and facilities are required at the N&N including many extra beds to cope with all these backlogs.. Let's praise the Ambulance service and stop using them as a scapegoat for the obvious failures of others.
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MIKEJ
Saturday, March 9, 2013