North West Ambulance Service Team Up With British Red Cross

A long-standing partnership between the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and the British Red Cross has been given an official seal of approval recently, with the signing of a joint working strategy.

NWAS Chief Executive, Darren Hurrell and British Red Cross Operations Director for Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, Alison Dixey both signed the document as part of an ongoing commitment to work closely together in times of major incidents or extreme high demand.

In the past, the Trust has called upon the services of the Red Cross to assist in day to day operations such as during the severe snowfall in January of this year. The charity helps with cases such as the transportation of less seriously ill patients, hospital transfers and GP urgents, when NWAS' ambulance crews are dealing with life-threatening cases or major incidents.

Darren Hurrell comments: 'The North West Ambulance Service is committed to delivering the right care, at the right time and in the right place and are extremely grateful for the support given by the British Red Cross which helps us to achieve this.

'Although the Trust already has robust major incident and winter plans in place, December through to January is traditionally one of our busiest times of the year and when faced with challenges such as a major incidents or a sudden increase in 999 calls, the help the British Red Cross can give us is invaluable.

'We felt that this successful working relationship needed to be set out in a more formal manner and this joint working partnership agreement sets out what both organisations can do to maintain the best possible patient care for the citizens of the North West."

Alison Dixey, British Red Cross Operations Director for Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside said, "We are looking forward to expanding our relationship with the North West Ambulance Service providing additional support as we did during the big freeze earlier this year."

The official signing of the strategy took place on 11 November 2010 at the British Red Cross site in Manchester.