Great Western Ambulance Service Leads The Way In Treating Patients At Home, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 30 Oct 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) today welcomed the Healthcare Commission (HCC) report on Urgent and Emergency Care, which showed the service as one of the best in England for treating patients at home.

Tim Lynch, Chief Executive for GWAS, said: "This is good news for GWAS and great news for our patients. We have been working hard to train our staff and give them the skills and equipment to treat the patient on scene, often in their own home, and avoid an unnecessary trip to hospital. It's what our patients want - the right care, in the right place, at the right time - and this report shows that GWAS is at the forefront of this service."

"Since December last year when our performance figures were collected for this report, we have made significant improvements in how we deal with emergency calls. We have recruited more front-line staff, invested in new ambulances and rapid response vehicles and upgraded technology in our control centres. We answer calls and attend incidents faster than ever before- at a time when demand for emergency care has increased. We still have improvements to make and we are working extremely hard to achieve this.

GWAS welcomed the review's recommendations, in particular the proposals to:

- pilot a new single number for urgent care to sit alongside 999, to help simplify patients' access to services;

- share information better between GPs, out of hours, A&E departments and ambulance services, so that patients move easily between different parts of the system and don't have to give their details time and again;

- measure urgent and emergency care services according to patients' outcomes and experiences, as well as response times, so patients get the best possible quality of care.

Source
John Oliver
External Communications Manager

Great Western Ambulance Service