West Midlands Ambulance Service
Encyclopedia
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
services in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
and Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
.
It is one of 12 Ambulance Trusts providing England with Emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service
WMAS is one of the highest performing ambulance services in England and was one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2006-07. WMAS employs over 3,500 staff over 63 sites, and makes over 450,000 emergency responses every year.
History
The trust was formed on July 1, 2006, following the merger of the Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Coventry & Warwickshire Ambulance NHS Trust, and WMAS and Shropshire services.On October 1, 2007, the service merged with Staffordshire Ambulance Service
Staffordshire Ambulance Service
The Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust was the authority responsible for providing National Health service ambulance services in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands region. Staffordshire Ambulance Service no longer exists following a merger with West Midlands Ambulance...
NHS Trust.
In March 2008, it announced plans for crews to trial wearing stab-proof vests. However, an internal report in March 2008 also stated that there was no evidence for the use of protective vests and as of October 2010, no crews have been issued with them.
EOC Reconfiguration
Following the merger of the trusts, WMAS inherited a number of standalone control rooms. This resulted in 5 EOCs spread across the region operating independently using varying levels of technology at the following sites:- Millennium Point, Brierley HillBrierley HillBrierley Hill is a town and electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. It is one of the larger Black Country towns with a population of 9,631 and is heavily industrialised, best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined...
- Tollgate Drive, Stafford
- Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury
- Bransford, Worcester - closed in December 2007
- Dale St, Leamington Spa
On 28 November 2007, the Trust agreed to go ahead with proposals for the reconfiguration of its Emergency Operations Centres, despite vocal protests from the public.
Air Ambulances
There is an air ambulance charity serving the WMAS service community, called the Midlands Air Ambulance.The Midlands Air Ambulance has three daylight air ambulance helicopters covering the 8000 square miles (20,719.9 km²) of the Midlands region, based at RAF Cosford
RAF Cosford
RAF Cosford is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton.-History:...
(nr Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
), Tattenhill Airport and at Strensham services
Strensham services
Strensham services is a motorway service station on the M5 in Worcestershire, England. In August 2011, it was rated as 4 stars and 3 stars by quality assessors at Visit England....
.
Resources
The trust has over 400 vehicles, including patient transport services vehicles, rapid response vehicles, motorcycle response units, and of course ambulance crews.In times of emergency, WMAS also requests assistance from voluntary ambulance providers, such as St John Ambulance. St John Ambulance (SJA) also provides 'A&E Support' crews at times when there is a high level of staff absence or there is an unusually high call volume. This arrangement sees SJA crews attending Emergency or Non-Emergency calls. SJA crews may treat and transport certain categories of patient, although they are expected to ask for further assistance for more serious patients.
In times of severe weather, WMAS also has the ability to call on the Severn Area Rescue Association
Severn Area Rescue Association
The Severn Area Rescue Association aka SARA or Severn Rescue is an Inshore Rescue boat and Land Search organisation covering the Severn Estuary and upper reaches of the River Severn. SARA is the largest independent lifeboat service in the UK, second only to the RNLI, with 12 operational boats and...
who have 4x4 ambulances .
Also, on Friday evenings, Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, as well as some bank holiday periods such as Christmas and New Year, support for front-line crews is provided by the West Midlands CARE Team. The CARE Team is a volunteer group of BASICS
British Association for Immediate Care
The British Association for Immediate Care is a registered charity which aims to encourage and aid the formation and extension of Immediate Care Schemes and strengthen and develop co-operation between schemes providing Immediate Care and the statutory emergency services...
doctors and nurses, conveyed in a specially equipped fast response car by a paramedic officer to provide advanced medical care at the scene of an incident.
In Herefordshire and Worcestershire, the Mercia Accident Rescue Service
Mercia Accident Rescue Service
Mercia Accident Rescue Service is a charity operation based on providing a fast-response, highly experienced medical team to back-up the emergency services of the English counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire....
or MARS is available to supplement and assist WMAS crews.
Herefordshire
In 2011, a new system was announced for the operations of ambulance services in Herefordshire, whereby Hereford would serve as the 24-hour "hub" where all vehicles would be serviced, maintained and held before all shifts. Stations include:- Hereford
- Leominster
- Ledbury
- Ross-on-Wye
- Bromyard
- Kington
- Leintwardine - closed in late 1990's
Worcestershire
Stations include:- Worcester
- Kidderminster
- Droitwich
- Malvern
- Evesham
- Redditch
- Bromsgrove
Other emergency medical services
- Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
- Air Ambulances in the United KingdomAir Ambulances in the United KingdomThere are a number of air ambulance services in the United Kingdom using either helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. Thirty helicopters, all operated by commercial companies and funded by charitable organisations, cover England and Wales...
- St John Ambulance
- British Red CrossBritish Red CrossThe British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...
Other emergency services
- West Mercia Police
- Staffordshire PoliceStaffordshire PoliceStaffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England...
- West Midlands PoliceWest Midlands PoliceWest Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...
- Warwickshire PoliceWarwickshire PoliceWarwickshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Warwickshire in England. It was known as Warwickshire Constabulary until 2001. It is the second smallest territorial police force in England and Wales after the City of London Police, with only 998.6 regular officers as...