Ambulance shake-up meeting next month

CHANGES to ambulance cover in Knowle, Dorridge and Bentley Heath will be discussed at an NHS meeting next month.

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Conference centre plan for ambulance station

A PLAN has been submitted to turn Solihull Ambulance Station into a conference centre – but keeping space for ambulances.

                 

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School ambulance plan scrapped

PLANS to station two ambulances at Arden school have been dropped.

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Horse fall girl airlifted to hospital

A TEENAGE girl was taken to hospital by air ambulance after falling from a horse in Dorridge.

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Ambulance responses 'amongst West Mids worst'

KNOWLE and Dorridge is low in the West Midlands league table for ‘life threatening’ ambulance response times, figures uncovered by The Silhillian show.

The B93 postcode was ranked 173rd out of 241 areas covered by West Midlands Ambulance Service where the most serious ‘category A’ calls are reached within eight minutes.

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'Miraculous’ escape after lamppost smash

A COUPLE in their 70s had a ‘miraculous’ escape after their car struck a lamppost.

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Major gaps in ambulance responses revealed

A POSTCODE lottery of ambulance response times for critically ill patients in Solihull, Knowle and Dorridge can be revealed by The Silhillian today.

About half of category A 999 calls, those classed as ‘immediately life threatening’, are reached in eight minutes in Knowle and Dorridge – compared to 90 per cent in Solihull.

Bosses say the major gulf exists because Knowle and Dorridge are ‘rural’ areas, where ambulances have longer to travel to reach the patients.

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Ambulance station parking bid

SOLIHULL Ambulance Station in Hermitage road is bidding to cut into a grassed area to boost car parking.

It wants to increase spaces from 17 to 30. Click here for full details.

More patients in ambulances outside hospital

PATIENTS are four times as likely to wait more than an hour in an ambulance outside Solihull Hospital than others in the West Midlands, latest figures show.

A lack of bed and staff are often blamed for the delay in these ‘turnaround’ times. It comes as ambulance and A&E waiting times deteriorate further.

About 10 people waited more than an hour in August – but this had risen to about 80 in November, a report from Solihull NHS Care Trust says.

It means about 13 per cent of all handovers from paramedics to hospital staff happened after an hour – up from one per cent in August. This was three per cent for the West Midlands.

And more than half of all patients waited more than half-an-hour before paramedics handed them to hospital staff. This is up from a quarter in August.

The report says: “The rates of delayed turnarounds for both Solihull and Heartlands are significantly in excess of the WM average.”

Critics have said patients are kept in ambulances so the clock does not ‘start ticking’ on a Government target for 98 per cent of A&E patients to be seen in four hours.

The four hour target is claimed to further distort priorities once in A&E.

A major study found a surge in A&E patients being seen in the ten minutes before the four hour target expires at Solihull, Heartlands and Good Hope hospitals.

Despite this, the four hour target was not met during a single day in December at the three.

The report says the trust is trying to reduce turnaround and response delays by taking patients to walk-in centres ‘regardless of age’ for minor injuries.

But it says: “It is difficult to see how the planned improvement measures put in place are having a beneficial impact.”

Ambulance response times have also deteriorated.

Just two thirds of the most serious calls were reached within eight minutes in November against a target of 75 per cent. This was down from October.

The report says it has ‘significant concern’ about this and can offer ‘no assurance’ this will improve.

The Silhillian has reported that chiefs have written to the West Midlands Ambulance Service expressing concern. They refused to make the letter public.

Download the report here and open 2010.011 Corporate Performance Report Nov 2009_1.

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Ambulance service worst for 999 responses

THE ambulance authority which serves Solihull is the worst in England for responding to emergency calls, it has been revealed.

An NHS report says West Midlands Ambulance service is one of five such authorities failing to get to 75 per cent of most serious calls in eight minutes. There are 11 in England.

The Solihull NHS Care Trust report adds WMAS is “lowest at 69.5%”.

The authority is also one of nine failing a second target, to get to less serious patients in 19 minutes 95 per cent of the time. The report did not give a figure.

Bosses at the region’s NHS primary care trusts, including Solihull, have written to WMAS “expressing continued concern regarding the lack of progress”.

The Silhillian asked for a copy of the letter under the Freedom of Information Act.

Heart of Birmingham PCT, which wrote the letter on behalf of trusts, refused and said this was allowed under exemptions of the act.

It said: “The working relationship between the Heart of Birmingham tPCT and the West Midlands Ambulance Service will be harmed by the release of this letter as managers will be less reluctant to air their concerns and views either by letter or in meetings if these matters are to be made public.”

Negative publicity could “hinder or delay” discussions while managers “deal” with negative publicity, it added.

Releasing the letter would also “undermine the commercial ability of a party to enter into [a] contractual relationship” it said.

The Silhillian reported yesterday how there were also delays when patients get to hospital.

A “worrying” number of people are not being handed over to hospital quickly enough, bosses said.

To read the latest report download the folder here and then open 2009.270 Corporate Performance Report Oct 2009_1.

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