Group to look at 999 calls response
Jul 3 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal
A COUNCIL is to set up a working group to scrutinise the performance of an ambulance service in rural Northumberland.
The move comes after bosses from the North East Ambulance Service were grilled by Northumberland county councillors over the response time to emergencies in rural parts of the county.
Members of the council health overview and scrutiny committee were presented with figures on ambulance response times and were given a presentation by Mark Cotton, head of communications at the service.
He showed the committee figures for ambulance response times for rural parts of Northumberland, in Haltwhistle and Bellingham.
Government targets say a service must get an ambulance to a category A 999 call within eight minutes, 75% of the time.
And while this target is being met in urban areas, the isolated nature of some of the incidents mean targets are being missed in rural areas. Chairman of the committee Marcia Bircham said: “It doesn’t make very good reading. It has taken three or four years to modernise the service and we still don’t seem to be there yet.
“If I was a resident of Bellingham and I saw these figures, I wouldn’t be very happy.
“Your figures are telling me that things are getting worse. Why can’t we get there (Bellingham) in time? If it is because there aren’t enough resources, let us know.”
Coun Ian Tompkins added: “It seems to me that the ambulance service has made a very big thing about beating targets in North Tyneside. It is about time that the resources that are being put into North Tyneside came into rural Northumberland.
“It is up to us to set up a council working party to really keep on at the ambulance service.”
The proposal for that working party was seconded and will now be set up, comprising members of the committee.
Mr Cotton showed the committee sets of statistics showing response times to priority 999 calls in rural Northumberland.
The service regularly holds meetings with groups in Haltwhistle and Bellingham to discuss its performance, and vowed at yesterday’s meeting to establish similar links with groups in the north of the county.
