Troubleshooter shipped in to help fix ambulance service (From Harwich and Manningtree Standard)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting HMSNEWS to 80360 or you can email us Click here for
details »
Troubleshooter shipped in to help fix ambulance service
9:30am Monday 18th March 2013 in News
A TROUBLESHOOTER has been called in to try and save the region’s failing ambulance service.
Andrew Morgan, interim boss of the East of England Ambulance Service, admits it is not working.
Some patients have been left waiting for hours for ambulances, with residents in Essex suffering the worst delays.
The trust has regularly failed to meet response targets.
Now, after months of patients and paramedics speaking out, steps are being taken to try and improve performance.
Anthony Marsh, head of the West Midlands ambulance service, is carrying out a detailed review of the trust, which covers six counties.
He will draw up with a plan with Mr Morgan by the end of April.
Mr Morgan said: “This is a trust which needs complete transformation.
“It is too centralised. It has not engaged its staff well enough and it has not tackled the issues that frontline staff say matter to them.
“As a trust we deal with 18,000 999 calls a week.
“Some of these do not go as I would want and some of the care we provide is not what I would want for my family and if it is not good enough for mine, it is not good enough for yours.
“We are struggling in some parts of our patch to get to people quickly enough.”
