Public urged to fight 999 plan
Friday 24th August 2007, 11:32AM BST.
People are being urged to turn out in force next week to oppose plans to close Shropshire’s ambulance emergency control centre.The West Midlands Ambulance Trust is consulting on proposals to cut the number of control rooms from five to three.
The facility at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, would close along with the centre at Worcester.
There would be two large regional centres in Brierley Hill and Stafford and a smaller support centre in Royal Leamington Spa.
Public meetings to explain the plans and let people have their say are being staged by the trust next Tuesday at the Shirehall, Shrewsbury, and at the Civic Offices, Telford, on Thursday. Both begin at 7pm.
Steve Jetley, who resigned as an ambulance technician last week after being suspended in a row over leaked documents, said today that it was essential people came to the meetings to express their concerns about the possible closure of the Shrewsbury centre.
“The evidence that we produced showed that because Shropshire ambulances were being moved out of the county, someone dialling 999 had to wait 16 minutes for an ambulance to be allocated,” said Mr Jetley.
“If the control centre moves out of Shrewsbury, no matter what the management say, things will get worse.” He said he was delighted that local people and businesses were supporting the campaign.
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I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the call centre was eventually relocated to India along with most UK banks, insurance companies & increasingly many others.
And so it makes sense doesn’t it that a person having a heart attack in Harlescott has an abulance arrive from Abbey Foregate having received the call to attend from Bombay.
My bet is that it won’t be long before when you see someone climbing out of your lounge window in Copthorne with your DVD player your 999 call will dispatch the police in Monkmoor as a result of a call from Delhi – that’s if they don’t tell you that they no longer attend burglaries.
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The only issue that i have with speaking to outsourced call centres is the language barrier.
I frequently (today included) need to speak to call centres based in India and get more and more annoyed at how poor their English is. In the case of 999 services, if this were to happen (and i doubt it will) it could be very dangerous and possibly endanger life!
From a business perspective though, there are advantages to outsourcing. Financially it can be beneficial and i would consider it if i required a call centre or other services.
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We only hope and pray that the toy pig (Hanged Toy Pig Is Removed – Shropshire Star) didn’t die because it had to wait too long for an ambulance.
And if West Mercia Police do ever tell you that they no longer attend burglaries please understand that it may well be because they are committed with rescuing a politically incorrect toy pig in a police uniform hanging from Greyfriars Bridge.
Thank you God for moving me to Cyprus where we wait on average 4 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and the same for the police – because we still sensibly have village stations.
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Big difference here is that this is not a call centre nor a business, it’s an Ambulance Control Centre and a Health Service.
Lives will be put at risk if these proposals go ahead in their current form.
WMAS Trust Board has been caught out too many times trying to hoodwink the public, the press and their staff. Murray MacGregor creates more spin than Monty and has more strings attached and tells bigger porkies than Pinocchio.
It’s about time the Board and Murray MacGregor did the honourable thing, admitted their behaviour has been disgraceful and stand down. Failing that, someone in authority over the Board should put a stop to this complete charade.
I’m incensed that the Trust Board takes the public for complete idiots, who do they think they’re kidding?
None of this is about improved service, it’s about cost cutting. Day after day we are treated in the news to the promise of more service cutbacks throughout the NHS; frankly it’s an absolute disgrace.
Don’t be fooled, this isn’t about discussing an overcharge on your bank account.
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It was a condition of the merger of Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service with that of West Midlands last year, that ambulance control was retained at Bransford. At Worcester’s public meeting 2 weeks ago, the Board when challenged upon this point, replied, “things change”. This Board must work out a way to honour its commitment to retain Bransford. How it accomplishes this should not be the problem of the public, PCTs, MPs, Local Councillors, operational staff or control staff. The Board accepted the condition. It should have considered more carefully at the time how it was going to manage it. Cherry picking is not an option one year down the line when the new WMAS has already received all the advantages of it’s merger with Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service.
Members of the public, stakeholders and ambulance staff attending the Shrewsbury meeting may all want to keep the “things change” remark in back of their minds. When assurances are given that ambulance stations won’t close, that crews will remain in their localities, that monies from part sale of Shrewsbury Control will be spent on Shrewsbury ambulance station, it must be remembered that, “things change”. This apart, the Trust Board have stated that all savings made from closure of ambulance controls will be channelled into bettering patient care or upgrading other control rooms. Upgrading the ambulance station fits neither case. The necessary upgrade should go ahead regardless of what happens to control rooms in the region.
An alternative proposal is already on the table. The Board have asked for the public to come up with ideas for an alternative plan that addresses the needs of the Trust. Yet when applications are made to see costings to enable such a plan to be formulated, the Board fail to provide the information. The Board has 20 working days to reply to questions submitted under the Freedom of Information Act. With meetings taking place next week and views to be with the consultation board by 1st October, precious little time remains for Shropshire people to question the Board and receive answers to their enquiries. I hope there’s a full house for these meetings.
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Liz,
Just think of the lives that would be saved if you were ONLY Chair of the Board.
But sadly you have too much care and logic for that to ever be reality.
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Hear hear, Christopher A.F Parsons OBE!
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Thank you Beepey – you are clearly (as everyone is that opposes this destructive nonsense) a fine and logical thinking person.
Can I ask you to read Warrington Norths obscure, easily convinced and ill informed comments in Gun crime trebles in region?
“You can fool some of the people all of the time,and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” God Beepey does that not apply more than ever in sad, lost at sea and Shropshire?
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What a combination? – A 202% increase in gun crime in a police force area where the ambulance service is going to cut it’s control rooms from 5 to 3?
A striking contrast then to New York where when gun crime rose by a much smaller percentage than that, sensibly and logically prepared itself by increasing not only it’s control rooms but by bringing into service a whole new fleet of specialist equipped ambulances that carry both highly trained paramedics in the field of ballistic injuries and equally highly trained police firearm officers. OK medical care is private in the USA just the same as it is here in Cyprus – BUT why not ask the public in Shropshire if they are prepared to pay a modest private medical care fee (that only covers ambulance services) OR huge council tax increases that not only results in refuge collection every other week but a marked reduction in ambulance cover and visibilty of police officers in their neighbourhood that equals the ammount of people that have seen a yeti?
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