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Copyright 2006 Coventry Newpapers
By HANNAH MURDOCH
Coventry Evening Telegraph (England)
Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance Service will cease to exist within six weeks as part of a national overhaul.
In its place will be the biggest ambulance trust in the world, which will eventually stretch from Stoke-on-Trent in the north to Worcester in the south.
The massive organisation will cover 6,000 square miles and 5.5 million people, and will oversee an area ranging from rural Shropshire to inner-city Birmingham.
Health chiefs have announced Coventry and Warwickshire ambulance trust will be merging with three other trusts to create a controversial “super-authority”.
On July 1 the trust, currently one of the best performing in the country, will join the West Midlands and Hereford and Worcester ambulance trusts, with Staffordshire ambulance service joining later. Health Minister Lord Warner yesterday confirmed the shake-up was part of amajor overhaul of emergency services in England, which will see the number of ambulance authorities slashed from 29 to 12.
Government health bosses claim creating fewer and larger trusts will mean less red tape and more money for front line services.
Lord Warner said: “Organisational changes are necessary. The boundary changes will create larger organisations better equipped to meet the challenges faced by a 21st century service.
“We know these changes are important for local people, which is why we put the proposals to public consultation.
“Overall we received positive responses, and where there have beenconcerns voiced, we’ve provided assurances that the new ambulance trusts will be required to meet the needs of local people within their boundaries.
“In the West Midlands, Staffordshire will remain separate for now,working in partnership with the new West Midlands ambulance trust until a merger is agreed at a later date.”
Lord Warner pledged there would be no reduction in ambulance vehicles or front line staff, and said savings in bureaucracy would mean more could be spent on these.
But opponents to the merger say Coventry and Warwickshire people will lose out as the trust tries to cope with up to two million ambulance journeys a year.
Malcolm Hazell, chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Ambulance Trust, has criticised the plans, saying they would be cumbersome and bad for patients. Other health chiefs have voiced concerns that if the proposals went wrong they could cost lives.