Additional funding for West Midlands
Tuesday, 29 January, 2008
West Midlands Ambulance Service is set to benefit from over £5 million pounds of additional funding.
The extra cash will be used to:
* Increase the number of rapid response vehicles
* Increase the number of paramedics who will staff the rapid response vehicles
* Ensure the Trust keeps the same number of ambulances but has newer and upgraded vehicles
* Keep the same number of paramedic working on ambulances
These improvements are linked to the introduction of the new national target for ambulance services which comes into effect on 1st April 2008.
West Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh, said, "It is true that we are increasing the number of rapid response vehicles across the region but we are not reducing the number of ambulances.
"This year we are buying 60 new ambulances and 30 rapid response vehicles (these include 18 cars with a 4x4 capability and two motorcycles).
"It is relatively rare that we will only send a paramedic in a car or on a motorbike to an incident; these are all lower category calls. For immediately life threatening 999 calls, response vehicles are always backed up by an ambulance, a helicopter or both."
