Greater Manchester’s ambulance service has gone from one of the worst in the country to one of the best – after being threatened with huge fines.
The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) came under fire from health bosses last year after failing to get to enough 999 calls on time. Now, new figures reveal the service has turned its performance around – and is beating government targets.
The news comes after the trust that runs NWAS was given an ultimatum in August to improve - or face a £3.8m fine.
Paramedics are supposed to get to life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes – and trusts must hit the standard 75 per cent of the time.
But NWAS failed to reach that target in last May and June, achieving only 73.6 per cent.
Health chiefs were set to impose the fine if things did not improve.
Now it has emerged the trust has hit its target every month since – achieving 76.9 per cent in July, 80 per cent in August, 78 per cent in September, 77.4 per cent in October and 78 per cent in November.
That was the second-best performance in the country, behind only South East Coast Ambulance Service on 80.3 per cent.
NWAS said it had met the target for December, too – although figures are not yet available.
Director of service delivery Cath Galaska said: "The North West Ambulance Service is very pleased to confirm that despite an increase in our activity during the summer of 2011, we have been performing well and exceeding the government target for Category A life-threatening calls for the year to date.
‘We have also experienced an extremely mild November and December compared to previous years, and have therefore not yet had to contend with severe snow and ice.
She said NWAS had invested ‘a great deal in resources and planning’ to improve its performance, and had developed an urgent care service to deal with less serious incidents, allowing paramedics to concentrate on responding to life-threatening emergencies.
It had also trained staff ‘to allow them to make more clinical decisions so that patients get the most suitable care for them’.
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NWAS like other NHS trust fidle the fiqures!!! Sending a RRV
car to an incident which stops the clock but no ambulance available for 1 hour as they are stuck in ED corridors!!! Poor patients left with RRV staff until a vehicle clears!!! That is not the 'best in the country' service!!! Shame on NWAS management!!!
I think on the whole they do a very good job, they cannot be everywhere at once and it's just a pity they have to look after drunken idiots
Second in so many things.....Second rate Metrolink and second rate street cleaning.......
On a serious note, the NWAS do a great job!!!!
Like all emergency services they would hit targest response times much more efficiently if so many members of the public didn't drink themselves half to death and then stagger about in the street.
And they would been even better if many people didn't make nonsense calls, wanting lifts to appointments or calling paramedics because they have had a bad dream.....
But, in any case, there will be ways to fiddle the figures. Like some policing areas, they may well have a vehicle that does no treatments.... and literally races to a call to stop the clock, and then the patient has to wait God knows how long to get treated.
I'm not criticising our fine paramedics here. That's just how self interested, promotion hungry managers work.
Name supplied - Mmm hellow yes i am a paramedic and my concern is for the patient not the management. Narrow minded? Please dont comment on a service you have no idea about haha. Go and read your daily mail while i read the sun and sunday sport! Saddo.
Yeesss...
perhaps "999 ambulances in Greater Manchester now second best in the country according to submitted figures" may be a little more accurate