By Karen Evans
Ambulance response times in Powys will have to improve by the end of the year – or the Welsh Ambulance Trust will face serious action, the Welsh health minister has warned.
The response times have been slammed in a new hard-hitting report ordered by the Welsh Assembly’s Health Minister.
The ambulance service has been given six months to improve – or else.
Health Minister Edwina Hart told the Assembly on Tuesday that the service’s performance was ‘unacceptable’ and she expected to see ‘substantial improvements’ by the end of the year.
“I have supported the Welsh Ambulance Service in taking forward its modernisation plans through the provision of additional capital and revenue funding,” she said.
“I want to satisfy myself I am getting the most value out of the investment I have made in the service.”
She said she was “extremely concerned” about staff morale and poor people management which was highlighted in the review led by Stuart Fletcher, chair of the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust.
Mid and West Wales Assembly Member and leader of the Conservatives in the assembly, Nick Bourne said: “The people in areas such as Powys are in an incredibly vulnerable position. Statistics clearly indicate that ambulance response times in areas across Mid Wales are simply not good enough.
“Regardless of geographical factors, efforts must be focused on improving the consistently low response times to which the residents of Powys are unfairly subject to; 47.8% of ambulances in Powys attended calls within the eight minutes – this is in stark contrast to 73.5% in Yorkshire which is comparable in it’s rurality. Powys is falling devastatingly short of its 60% target.
“Even the authorities in charge recognise that these figures are not good enough. More must be done to reassure the residents of Powys that if needed, the emergency services will perform to the necessary requirements.”
Mrs Hart said targets had also been set on the length of time it takes to hand over patients at hospitals in a bid to eradicate long queues of ambulances outside accident and emergency departments.
She was telling the Assembly her findings from a series of reports into the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust. She had ordered an update into the service in the wake of persistently poor response times on 999 calls.
The Welsh Ambulance Service welcomed the outcome of the Ministerial Review.
Service chief executive Alan Murray said: “The review’s recommendations and the analysis provided by the Auditor General will greatly assist us as we move forward with the modernisation of emergency ambulance services in Wales.”
