South Central Ambulance Trust boss Will Hancock admits shortage in Hampshire (From Daily Echo)
When news happens, text SDE and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
South Central Ambulance Trust boss Will Hancock admits shortage in Hampshire
8:22am Wednesday 9th December 2009 in
-
- By Clare Kennedy » Health Reporter
MPs have called for urgent action after Hampshire’s ambulance boss admitted the county does not have enough ambulances.
South Central Ambulance Trust chief executive Will Hancock added that no such problems existed in the Thames Valley area, which he is also responsible for covering.
He said: “We have a fundamental problem. We are short of frontline ambulances in Hampshire. It’s as simple as that.
“We make the very best of what we’ve got, but we need more.
“If we are talking about Thames Valley, which is the other part of the area that I cover, it’s much more resourced and we don’t have these similar problems.”
New Forest West MP Desmond Swayne said: “We pay our taxes, too. There has to be a fair share of resources.”
He urged the ambulance service to improve its emergency response times, which has seen the service meet the eight minute target for urban areas, but only achieve an average of 11 and a half minutes for rural areas.
Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne said: “Response times must improve and it is very worrying that the ambulance service admits that it doesn’t have enough vehicles to provide the same quality of service in our county as elsewhere. I will be raising this with ministers.”
A South Central Ambulance spokesman said that they planned to increase the number of ambulances but could not say when, as it would be “subject to funding”.
He added that the ambulance service, covering Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, planned to have “the same level of resources available across the four counties we serve”.
Commenting on Hampshire’s ambulance shortage, the spokesman said: “This is a long-standing situation that goes back many years.
“Our focus is on improvements for patients with immediately life-threatening conditions.
We accept waits for other patients in Hampshire may be longer than those experienced elsewhere. Additional funding would enable us to address this situation and to provide an improved service to them.”
The Daily Echo last week highlighted the case of a Hampshire stroke victim who died just weeks after waiting 12 hours to get to a hospital bed South Central Ambulance Service admitted it took almost six hours – an hour and threequarters longer than promised – to collect 92-year-old Thirza Gover from her Totton home.
■ See Saturday’s Review section for an insight into a Friday night shift with South Central Ambulance.
Comments(14)
Treble9
says...
8:54am Wed 9 Dec 09
Redback
says...
9:22am Wed 9 Dec 09
para
says...
2:15pm Wed 9 Dec 09
goard
says...
2:41pm Wed 9 Dec 09
goard
ParaPompey
says...
4:46pm Wed 9 Dec 09
para wrote:What on earth has this got to do with the story about a lack of resources?!?. This is very interesting to read, however if you wish to publish something of this nature, I suggest you get your facts correct before doing so. The manager in question, as I understand, was not sacked for making hoax 999 calls at all!!
Hmm, Mr Hancock forgot to mention they've just sacked a member of Hants Control, infact a manager for making fake/hoax 999 calls to attempt to improve their call figures.
Now I would be very careful if you are suggesting that Hampshire are fiddling the books, and even if they were, they are even doing a crap job of that as it doesn't seem to be improving the statistics now does it?!
winky woo
says...
4:49pm Wed 9 Dec 09
para wrote:Mr Hancock forgets a number of things regarding managment and accountability. SCAS as an organisation makes me sick. At least the other 999 services attempt to put the public first and not statistics. When will peoples lives start being a driver for their business.
Hmm, Mr Hancock forgot to mention they've just sacked a member of Hants Control, infact a manager for making fake/hoax 999 calls to attempt to improve their call figures.
As far as fake jobs are concerned it must be very easy to spot someone cheating in such a blatant way. One question though. What would be the personal gain of someone cheating call figures? It couldnt be down to poor leadership and managment again could it.
I also have it on good authority the press are aware of this story. Lets hope it all comes out in the wash and some heads roll....
And lastly regarding the lack of ambulances. How about you have a look outside any of the major hospitals in hamsphire to see what the ambulances are doing. Stacking patients up to avoid them becoming a bad statistic in the hospitals domain. Great managment. Well done.
I am off to join Bupa!!
littlemisshappy
says...
4:53pm Wed 9 Dec 09
fredjones
says...
6:12pm Wed 9 Dec 09
Do bupa run ambulance services then? Nope...what happens if you need an ambulance when you are with bupa? - You get an NHS ambulance turn up, the same as everyone else, being private does not affford you any special treatment as far as the ambulance service goes...thats what!
And as for "para" and their comments on the sacking of managers...shame on you. Grow some balls and blow the whistle properly, if of course that's what you want to do?
Stupideditor
says...
6:20pm Wed 9 Dec 09
Treble9 wrote:Also not forgetting the missuse of the service by our own GP's. Alot of GP admissions can be delt with by other family members.
There are 4 million people in Hampshire. On average there are around 14000 emergency calls made in Hampshire every month. The maximum number of ambulances on shift at any one time in Hampshire is roughly 55 (less during nights). That gives each crew more than 8 jobs per day. When you then consider that some jobs mean you are on scene for up to 3 hours, or having to wait 1, 2, 3 hours at hospital to hand over a patient, or having 6 vehicles off the road for repairs, or having to attend to people that refuse to take responsiblity for their own health, or having to deal with completely inappropriate calls, you can understand why response times might be a bit slower. Hampshire haven't had enough ambulances for years. They don't have enough Paramedics either. They also don't have any money. The workload keeps getting bigger but the service and fleet doesn't.
someonewhocares
says...
11:44pm Wed 9 Dec 09
para wrote:Not quite sure why someone who would work for such a valuable service would want to make hoax calls knowing there were no resources!???? Are we sure about our facts here?
Hmm, Mr Hancock forgot to mention they've just sacked a member of Hants Control, infact a manager for making fake/hoax 999 calls to attempt to improve their call figures.
para
says...
10:32am Thu 10 Dec 09
Because I suggest that the figures we're being shown aren't true & incidents like I mentioned are being used to manipulate the figures.
And I believe tyhe Trust could have picked at least 3 or 4 reasons to sack em, including fiddling figures.
And am I suggesting that SCAS/Hampshire are fiddling there figures? Hmmm, all i'm gonna say is check out Conveying / Non Conveying A19 figures (remember when you don't convey that pt in the FRV/RRV & need a crew, hmm)
"And I need to use the NHS WhistleBlowing Policy & grow a set,"
hmmm what do you know bout the NHS Policy, do you remember the Alder Hey Baby Scandal ? Well Dr Rossi (the Whistle Blower) is currently working in New Zealand because no NHS Trust would employ him afterwards. That policy works well don't it !!!
littlemisshappy
says...
11:50am Thu 10 Dec 09
sureshot
says...
3:59pm Thu 10 Dec 09
Unachieveable government targets, poor money management, the closure of Haslar hospital, stupid people who call 999 for the most inappropriate things taking away an ambulance for a genuine patients, occasional non support from GP's....just a few of the problems causing this.
More News stories
- Redknapp cleared of tax evasion
- 'I'd rather tell mum I had implant than tell her I was pregnant'
- Bid to shut down sex club
- Raw sewage forces family to flee home
- Civic chiefs spend £135,000 on air fares
- Solar panels to save council £360,000
- Benefits cheat spent £3,700 in swindled cash on drink
- Rock star avoids driving ban
- Prince backs jobs bid
- Ice cream firm moves into new £2.4m home
Ambulance boss admits vehicle shortage
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
Bam Boozler says...
8:33am Wed 9 Dec 09
Once again the public receive a worse service because the management have made too many short sighted decisions.
The low ambulance and crew numbers now cited as reasons for selling the Winchester ambulance station - are more going to be sold off now to raise cash?
Selling off assets is a short term fix for short term solutions.
This story is testament to the discraceful decisions made in the past that has left the ambulance service tetering on the edge of collapse.
Is SCAS similar to banks - will taxpayers have to step in and foot the bill whilst bosses are given huge bonuses for their incompetence?