Opponents fear Somerset ambulance merger pitfalls

6:30am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News

Opponents fear Somerset ambulance merger pitfalls Opponents fear Somerset ambulance merger pitfalls

AMBULANCES responding to incidents in Somerset will be controlled by an organisation covering 10,000 square miles following the Government's approval of a merger of two trusts.

Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust has joined with South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust to form a single foundation trust.

The merger, which has been approved by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will cover an area from Cornwall to The Cotswolds.

Opponents fear the organisation is too big, but bosses believe it will improve efficiency and cut costs.

Chief executive Ken Wenman claims the workforce and staff will be easier to control in the face of Government cuts.

The new trust, which will serve 5.3million people, will have 4,000 employees over 100 sites and is expected to field some 250,000 calls every year.

Comments(1)

Koenigninners says...
9:14am Wed 6 Feb 13

Bad idea based SOLELY on saving money and NOTHING else. It will NOT improve eficiency. I had cause to call for an ambulance a few weeks following an RTA and it took me almost ten minutes of giving the operator the location by street name and adjoining junction name before they could send an ambulance as they had no local knowledge, I was actually stood about 75 yards away from an ambulance station and said it would be quicker for me to just knock on the door and ask for help outside, can you imagine how much longer this call would have taken if the operator was trying to cover an area that large - Ambulances WILL be delayed and lives WILL be put at risk so that the Govt can save a few pennys here and then use it to help themselves and their mates elsewhere.

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