CAMPAIGNER VISITS NEW AMBULANCE CONTROL (West Bromwich and Warley Liberal Democrats)

West Bromwich and Warley Liberal Democrats <info@westbromwichandwarleylibdems.org.uk>

CAMPAIGNER VISITS NEW AMBULANCE CONTROL

July 14, 2009 8:08 PM
Originally published by West Midlands Liberal Democrats

Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Richard Burt, who campaigned with staff to save Bransford Ambulance Emergency Operations Centre, visited the new control room in Brierley Hill last week to see how the new system is bedding in.

Mr Burt had pledged to keep an eye on performance figures for Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

"Following the closure of Bransford there were some real problems as only one third of the staff transferred to Brierley Hill. There's no doubt those who went were using an inferior despatching system to the one that had been in operation at Bransford," said Richard.

"I asked the Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh to include the two counties in the first tranche within the West Midlands to get a new state-of-the-art despatch system and I am delighted that this suggestion was adopted.

"The new system went live in May and I was able to see how it was working after a couple of months in operation.

"There was a dip in performance initially, but the response times are now getting close to target on Category A calls on most days.

"The despatch system is clearly a vast improvement on what went before. However, it is still worrying that emergency attendance targets are not being met consistently.

"This is probably due to operational capacity and increased demand on the service rather than the despatch system itself," added Mr Burt.