A DEDICATED ambulance service for south Essex could put an end to months of misery - with patients waiting hours for ambulances and queues forming outside of hospitals.
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) will devolve powers within the service to a sub-county level from November.
The trust, formed in 2006 following the merger of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, East Anglia and Essex ambulance services, has taken the moved to alleviate pressure on the service.
READ MORE
- MP Anna Firth accepts new government role but Southend remains her 'guiding principle'
- Police confirm investigation into allegations and threats made towards Archie's family
EEAST has struggled to cope with demand so far this year, with regular reports of long queues of ambulances outside Southend Hospital’s A&E department.
Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois welcomed the plans which will see day-to-day decisions will now be taken at a layer of management designed to mirror the new NHS Integrated Care Boards which replaced Clinical Commissioning Groups earlier this year.
For south Essex, this will mean ambulances will be managed a level equivalent to the Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust which runs Basildon, Broomfield and Southend hospitals.
“I commend EEAST for this new initiative, which is designed to give our hard-working paramedics a better chance to react more effectively to local needs and help patients across South Essex as a result,” Mr Francois said.
“I dug out the other day a letter which I sent back in 2005, objecting to the regionalisation of the then very efficient Essex Ambulance Service, as I feared the new, larger organisation would be too remote and bureaucratic - which has, unfortunately, proved to be the case.”
Basildon councillor Jeff Henry, responsible for Health and Wellbeing, said: “EEAST have an incredibly large geography to cover so devolution to a local level is a good thing.
“Local leaders know of the pressure points in their areas, so for a massive organisation like the ambulance trust to give as much input to local leaders as possible will surely benefit resident.”
Head of the East of England Ambulance Service Tom Abell said: “What will work in Essex will be different to what will work in Luton or Hertfordshire or Norfolk.
“So that local joint leadership of the service is going to be an essential part of that as we move forward.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article