At-risk ambulance crews still deliver

Feb 28 2006 By James Cartledge, Birmingham Mail

AMBULANCE mercy crews facing the threat of being merged are still leading the way in life-or-death emergencies, new figures have revealed.

Staffordshire Ambulance Service teams are continuing to beat national response standards to 999 calls.

Despite a 10 per cent increase in emergency alerts, the latest figures showed paramedics were reaching more than 87 per cent of life-threatening calls in the target period of eight minutes or less.

The national standard demands an eight-minute response in 75 per cent of cases. The service's deputy chief executive, Dr Anton van Dellen, hailed the results, which emerged as the organ-isation faced the threat of being merged with neighbouring 999 teams.

He said the statistics placed the service up with the best in the world.

"Despite all the uncertainty about the proposed ambulance changes, our staff continue to deliver high standards of life-saving responses," he said.

"Every day and every hour, they are still delivering the best life-saving chances available in the quickest time possible. The response levels are the levels recorded by the top ambulance service performers in the world."

Politicians from across Staffordshire have united to fight for the future of the county ambulance service.

Earlier this year, Lichfield's Tory MP Michael Fabricant told the House of Commons: "Any doctor will tell you time is life.

"You have a golden period in which you can rescue someone from death. Stafford-shire Ambulance Service succeeds where others fail.

"If Staffordshire Ambulance Service is merged with the West Midlands, lives will be unnecessarily lost and this Government will be to blame."