Fears over three-into-two ambulance merger plan

While an amalgamation of ambulance services may tidy-up administrative boundaries, there are concerns that local response times and accountability would suffer, if the plan gets the go-ahead.

Coun Ian Grieve, of Potto, raised these points recently at the meeting of Rudby Parish Council.

He regularly observes meetings of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) and is chairman of the local community health council, the patients' watchdog body.

He understood three existing ambulance services could be merged into two, saying: "A proposal was put forward at the last Tenyas board meeting asking the Secretary of State to authorise amalgamation of it with the West Yorkshire Ambulance Service and the North-East service, which covers County Durham and Northumbria and is based in Newcastle."

He understood the request came from the County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority, which plans and monitors all levels of health provision in the region.

"I think Tenyas would be split up, perhaps with the northern half going to the North-East service and the southern half going to West Yorkshire. Our nearest ambulance station is currently Coulby Newham and this proposal, if implemented, could create knock-on effects for it. Cleaning up administrative boundaries is not a good reason to do this. There must be clear benefits for us.

"People in this area need to be included in the consultation," he emphasised.

"The big concern after the last ambulance service mergers was that the statistics (response times) were really dreadful. It took two years for the services to settle down.

"Re-organisation usually jilts the system and knocks it back. However, we could still be served by Coulby Newham, but it would have to be formalised."

He said similar issues of response, accountability and governance were raised by the merger of the Friarage and James Cook hospitals' management.