West Midlands Ambulance Service
The West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust is the second-largest ambulance service, and the first university ambulance trust in the UK. It is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services within the West Midlands region of England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service. There is no charge to patients for use of the service.
The trust provides non-emergency patient transport services in Birmingham, the Black Country, Arden and Cheshire. The contract for Worcestershire, which has been run by the ambulance service for 30 years, ended in March 2020, when it lost to a private provider. In November 2019, the trust took over the running of the 111 service in the West Midlands.
The trust is led by chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh and chair Professor Ian Cumming OBE. It employs around 6,500 staff and is supported by about 1,000 volunteers. It has 15 large ‘Make Ready’ hubs where vehicles are prepared, maintained and cleaned by specialist staff ready for the clinical staff to use for treating patients. The trust now responds to over 1,000,000 999 emergency calls every year.
WMAS was the highest-performing ambulance services in England and one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2018-19. It is the best-performing English ambulance service in the NHS, being graded Outstanding by Care Quality Commission inspectors in January 2017 and 2019.
History
The trust was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of the Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Coventry & Warwickshire Ambulance NHS Trust, and WMAS and Shropshire services.On 1 October 2007, the service merged with Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
It became an NHS foundation trust on 1 January 2013.
It was announced on 14 November 2018, that the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust had gone into partnership with the University of Wolverhampton to form the UK's first university-ambulance trust. It has since signed similar agreements with Staffordshire University, Coventry University, the University of Worcester and The University of Warwick. As a result, the trust has changed its name to West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust.
Performance
In the 2017–18 contract negotiations with clinical commissioning groups, where Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG negotiated on behalf of all the West Midlands CCGs the trust sought financial compensation for the delays to ambulances caused by patient handover delays at local hospitals. WMAS wanted a "full second tariff" on top of the standard tariff for delays over 60minutes, and "a smaller second tariff" for delays over 30minutes, which would have come to around £6million. After mediation by NHS England and NHS Improvement it was agreed to pay the trust an additional £2.1M in 2017–18. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust were singled out as the main culprits.In 2017 it got an outstanding rating from the CQC - the only ambulance trust in England to do so. This has been continued with a new CQC report in 2019 improving its outstanding status.
Emergency operations centres
Following the merger of the trusts, WMAS inherited a number of standalone control rooms. This resulted in five centres spread across the region operating independently using varying levels of technology at sites: Millennium Point, Brierley Hill, Tollgate Drive, Stafford, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Bransford, Worcester and Dale St, Leamington Spa. On 28 November 2007, the trust agreed to go ahead with proposals for the reconfiguration of its emergency operations centres. WMAS now operates one of the most sophisticated dispatch systems in the country from two EOCs based at Millenium Point, Brierley Hill and Tollgate Drive, Stafford. They operate as a single virtual EOC so waiting calls at either of the trusts two EOCs can be answered by the other. This increases the speed at which vehicles can be dispatched.Resources
As of 2019, the trust had over 450 emergency ambulances with a similar number of non-emergency patient transport service vehicles.- 465 double-crewed emergency response ambulances
- The trust now only has a handful of rapid response vehicles, all 4x4 capable, which are now mainly used by managers and specialist resources.
- Patient transport service vehicles - these are non emergency-capable vehicles without emergency equipment fitted used for transporting patients to/from/between medical treatment facilities and patients home addresses. There is also a fleet of ‘high dependency’ vehicles that carry basic medical equipment including a defibrillator, oxygen and a basic heart monitor.
- 31 major incident vehicles, used to support large-scale incidents where multiple ambulances may be overwhelmed or there is the requirement for a co-ordinated response across emergency response services.
- The Medical Emergency Response Intervention Team are a critical care paramedic and trauma doctor providing rapid response to emergencies in a RRV.
- Hazardous Area Response Team
- WMAS can dispatch any of three charity-funded air ambulances from the Midlands Air Ambulance, carrying a specially trained doctor and critical care paramedic at all times. It also has access to both the Warwickshire & Northampton Air Ambulance and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance, both operated by The Air Ambulance Service
- West Midlands Ambulance Service are supported by several BASICS-affiliated charities, who provide volunteer doctors and nurses to support the regular ambulance service staff at more serious incidents.
- On some evenings and all weekends, support for front-line crews is provided by the West Midlands CARE Team. The CARE Team is a volunteer group of BASICS 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 is available to supplement and assist WMAS crews.
- North Staffordshire BASICS provide similar support in the north of the WMAS region.
- In times of severe weather, WMAS also has the ability to call on the Severn Area Rescue Association who have 4x4 ambulances.
- WMAS can dispatch community first responders, who are volunteers working in partnership with WMAS, to medical emergencies in their local communities. These schemes are located all throughout the West Midlands, mostly located in rural areas where response times are longer.
Localities
Herefordshire and Worcestershire
The trust operates make ready hubs in Hereford, Worcester and Bromsgrove. There are also community stations in Malvern, Evesham and Stourport. In 2019, the trust lost the contract for patient transport in Worcestershire to a private firm, E-zec Medical Transport, which already operates the contract in Herefordshire. The trust said it lost out because it "refused to compromise on patient safety", and was not prepared to bid for the price offered.Shropshire
There are make ready hubs in Shrewsbury and Donnington with community stations in Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Market Drayton & Oswestry.Staffordshire
There are make ready hubs in Stafford, Lichfield and Stoke-on-Trent With community sites in Biddulph, Uttoxeter and Leek.Coventry & Warwickshire
There are make ready hubs in Warwick and Coventry with community ambulance stations in Rugby and Stratford-Upon-Avon. Also a standby point at Nuneaton Fire Station where a single DCA works from.Birmingham and the Black Country
There are two make ready hubs in the Birmingham area sited at Hollymoor, and Erdington.The Black Country is served by make ready hubs in Dudley, Willenhall and West Bromwich.
In addition, the HART & MERIT base is sited in Oldbury.