UNISON Condemns Ambulance Cuts in Suffolk
UNISON has condemned proposals to reduce the 999 service in Suffolk. Management have recently carried out a number of staff road shows and given details of their plans.
Management are carrying out a review of staff rotas in East of England Ambulance service stations. The Trust proposes to lessen the amount of double staffed ambulances (DSAs) and more reliance on rapid response vehicles (RRVs) within the county.
Examples of this are Bury St Edmunds will suffer losses of 2 DSAs, Thetford will lose 2 DSAs and 1 RRV at certain times of the day, Sudbury will also lose one of its DSAs.
This will, if implemented, have a very real effect on the public of Suffolk. The service users may have protracted waiting times for an ambulance to convey patients to hospital, thus, potentially worsening the condition of patients.
UNISON Branch Secretary, Gary Applin says “we are really concerned that there will be detrimental effect on patient care caused by these cuts. Patients in need of emergency care are going to have to wait longer to be transported to hospital as a result of these changes.’’
He continued “the Trust are currently only just hitting their performance targets in this area, a reduction in services will most certainly have a negative impact on this performance target”.
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