2:13pm Tuesday 13th January 2009
TWO political rivals from Worcestershire have both visited the controversial call centre in Brierley Hill where county ambulances are now co-ordinated from.
Liberal Democrat Richard Burt and Conservative Harriett Baldwin, the two rival parliamentary candidates for West-Worcestershire, have made separate trips to the emergency call centre to meet leading figures from the West Midlands Ambulance Service and discuss their concerns over the closure of the old call centre in Bransford, near Worcester.
Despite considerable public outcry, the Bransford centre closed at the start of December and all operations moved to Brierley Hill.
Since then, whistle-blowers have claimed staff have struggled to cope and patients’ lives put at risk.
The trust, however, says more patients are now being reached within the eight-minute time limit than were a year ago.
“There seem to be three main problems,” Mrs Baldwin said. “Firstly, the move to Bransford was done very suddenly because of staffing issues.
“They admitted this was not ideal, and they had to rush things rather.
“Secondly, Category A calls are up considerably because we’ve had a very cold December.
“And third, ambulance visits to Worcestershire Royal Hospital seem to be taking much longer than they should.”
She said she was pleased the trust is answering more calls inside eight minutes than before, but added more needs to be done.
“Category A calls are still not meeting their targets,” she said. “And I still have concerns about the local knowledge we have lost.”
Mr Burt said he believed the decision to move at the start of December was a mistake.
“Plans to move the control in February or March, when fewer calls are received, would have eased teething problems considerably,” he said.
“I was told that this was a decision based on ‘operational’ considerations. However, the result has been to put lives at risk.”
Mr Burt said the problems over the past six weeks have left “a very big question mark” over claims the move would improve the service, and called on bosses to help restore public confidence by ensuring Brierley Hill is the first centre in the region to receive new computer systems when they are introduced later this year. Trust chief executive Anthony Marsh said his meeting with Mr Burt had been “very positive” and added: “Despite all the demand, considerably more people with life-threatening injuries received a response within eight minutes than did in 2007, which clearly is very positive.
“The decisions we have taken were not easy, but have proved to be the right ones.”
No one was available to comment on the meeting with Mrs Baldwin as your Worcester News went to press.
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