To receive a presentation from the North West Ambulance Trust on their future service plans, and to review local performance issues.

Madeline Edgar, Senior Communications Manager, and Pat McFadden, Central Sector Manager, of the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) delivered a brief summary of the Service’s 5 Year Plan and gave an update on the performance of NWAS in the Trafford area.

Statistics had been submitted to the Committee which showed that ambulance response times in Trafford were significantly slower than those in the other council areas of Greater Manchester. The Committee expressed their concerns in respect of this, asking why performance was comparatively weak in Trafford and whether measures were being taken by NWAS to improve this.

The Central Sector Manager said that he shared the Committee’s concerns and attributed the performance levels to NWAS experiencing resource challenges in respect of meeting increasing public demand. Greater demands on the Service had caused response time statistics to decline recently, and the quieter period anticipated over the summer months, which usually allowed statistics to level out, had not materialised. It was explained that the comparative statistics for Trafford may also be affected by the virtue of Trafford’s large geographic area and the natural concentration of available ambulances picking up calls as they leave the acute hospitals in more central locations.

It was emphasised that it was necessary to be prudent in the use of the limited resources available to deliver ambulance services in the most effective way possible, and the success of a GP referral scheme in reducing the number of patients requiring ambulance attendance was cited. The development of integrated pathways had also been expected to ease the pressure on the Service, but increasing demands on resources had led to this mitigating the extent of Service pressure, rather than generating an improvement in performance statistics. Measures had also been taken to identify frequent callers and an information exercise had led to a reduction in calls from some addresses.

The Committee requested that NWAS provided a statistical breakdown of ambulance response times in Trafford in order to help identify potential differences in results between the North and South of the borough. It was also requested that statistical information be provided to quantify the impact of ambulances being delayed, if possible.

RESOLVED:

1)            That the update be noted;

2)            That a breakdown of ambulance response times in Trafford, categorised by postcode, be submitted to the Committee; and

3)            That information be provided to the Committee showing the practical impact of increased ambulance response times.