The East of England Ambulance Service Trust will be introducing increased ambulance cover across the region from Monday.
Mustard video: Extra ambulances to be provided for six towns and one village in the region
Sophie Wyllie
Thursday, February 14, 2013
10:20 AM
Extra full-time ambulances will be brought in across six key market towns and one village in Norfolk and Suffolk from next week.
Cromer Ambulance Station staff make a stand against cuts to the ambulance service.
PHOTO: ANTONY KELLYThe 15 new vehicles will be introduced on Monday following a decision by the East of England Ambulance Service Trust this week.
It is one of a raft of measures being introduced by the trust’s interim chief executive Andrew Morgan since he took over less than two months ago.
The extra ambulances come on top of existing plans for new, more effective rotas and improvement measures which include a recruitment drive for 75 new paramedics and 124 emergency care assistants bringing the total number of front-line staff to nearly double over seven years.
They will be places at key locations after a review in direct response to patient and staff feedback to identify where more double staffed ambulances (DSAs) might be needed.
The areas that will receive the extra cover from DSAs will be Beccles, Cromer, Dereham, Diss, Downham Market, Mildenhall and Potter Heigham.
Mr Morgan said: “After reviewing the situation and listening to patient and staff feedback it became clear that getting more double staffed ambulances out there was a priority that would directly benefit patients and reduce waiting times.
“I have had many discussions about the resources we have available and we are tackling the situation in many ways by recruiting more staff, trying to better match staff availability to demand, giving more power to local managers to deliver the right service for their area, working with hospitals to reduce turnaround times and addressing productivity, efficiency and sickness issues. All of this work will continue and must deliver results.
“However I am clear that we do not currently have enough DSAs out on the road. We cannot wait for all this other work to come to fruition before we address this shortfall which is why we have taken immediate action.
“We will be working with staff on crewing the vehicles while we get our new frontline paramedics and ECAs on board as quickly as possible.”
The announcement comes after 10 paramedics appealed for Mr Morgan to review the proposed cuts to ambulance cover at the Cromer ambulance station.
For a full reaction, read tomorrow’s EDP.
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11 comments
Get the lazy whingers working a shift system, that way you can crew more vehicles without paying any extra. Silly me, of course the chief exec had that brainwae weeks ago while concocting this little press release.
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Mr Cameron Isaliar
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Norman Lamb is a Health Minister and he could have done a great deal more from day one. This victory is one for the thousands of signatories on the North Norfolk Labour Party's Act on Ambulance campaign. They are the ones that caused this by the simple use of people power. The public spoke and the authority had to listen.
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David Pritchard
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
It's like the hokey cokey! You take one away, you give one back, in, out, in, out, shake it all about. They were very keen to stress these are not new ambulances. As for Norman Lamb saying he wants to keep the pressure up, he works in the Department of Health, take some responsibility!
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omnishambles
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wasn't Norman lamb one of the MPs who voted for cuts to the NHS and ambulance service???? Talk about double standards. Can't have it both ways Mr Lamb
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rudders
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Morgan on Look East: these are not new vehicles, we will be making better use of our existing fleet, and until new recruits are on board we will be juggling the workload of current employees, using overtime, etc to staff them. Laughable isn't it. Best of all was a map flashed up at the start of the piece, showing only 4 I think of the vehicles in Norfolk, the rest in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. I think Essex gets most, what a surprise. Worst aspect was Lamb and Coffey jumping on the bandwagon.
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Police Commissioner ???
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wow aren't we lucky !!!! still if I need an ambulance, I will phone for a taxi as they will get to you quicker than an ambulance.. the Ambulance Service lost my trust years ago ..
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Footyboy16
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
At first I thought they must have cleared the shelves at "ambulances'r'us" - how else could they come up with 15 new vehicles at short notice. Upon further examination, the details given in this article are less clear on the subject when compared to the triumphant headline and opening sentences. So what is really happening? Genuine additional new vehicles and extra staff to crew them, or spin to disguise what is merely a shuffling of the deckchairs,At first I thought they must have cleared the shelves at "ambulances'r'us" - how else could they come up with 15 new vehicles at short notice. Upon further examination, the details given in this article are less clear on the subject when compared to the triumphant headline and opening sentences. So what is really happening? Genuine additional new vehicles and extra staff to crew them, or spin to disguise what is merely a shuffling of the deckchairs?
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Mr Cameron Isaliar
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Cautiously welcome this, but let's remember these aren't *new* ambulances - they were the ones that were cut.
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Jono
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Sounds like some good news. Hopefully the new management are getting a grip on things. We shall see.
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a fine city
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A timely announcement to u-turn on cuts in Cromer a week before a by-election there.
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omnishambles
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
well this poo poos what MPs and bosses were saying about not needing more resource!!
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Double Bill
Wednesday, February 13, 2013