The West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust (WMAS) is the second-largest ambulance service, and the first university ambulance trust in the UK. It is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services within the West Midlands region of England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service. There is no charge to patients for use of the service.
The trust provides non-emergency patient transport services in Birmingham, the Black Country, Arden, Cheshire and the Wirral. The contract for Worcestershire, which has been run by the ambulance service for 30 years, ended in March 2020, when it lost to a private provider. In November 2019, the trust took over the running of the 111 service in the West Midlands (except Staffordshire).
The trust is led by chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh and chair Professor Ian Cumming OBE. It employs around 5,000 staff and is supported by a number of volunteers, including 750 community first responders. It has 15 ‘Make Ready’ ambulance hubs where emergency vehicles are prepared, maintained and cleaned by specialist staff ready for the clinical staff to use for treating patients. The trust now responds to over 1,000,000 999 emergency calls every year.
WMAS was the highest-performing ambulance services in England and one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2018-19. It is the best-performing English ambulance service in the NHS, being graded Outstanding by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors in January 2017 and 2019.
The trust provides non-emergency patient transport services in Birmingham, the Black Country, Arden, Cheshire and the Wirral. The contract for Worcestershire, which has been run by the ambulance service for 30 years, ended in March 2020, when it lost to a private provider. In November 2019, the trust took over the running of the 111 service in the West Midlands (except Staffordshire).
The trust is led by chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh and chair Professor Ian Cumming OBE. It employs around 5,000 staff and is supported by a number of volunteers, including 750 community first responders. It has 15 ‘Make Ready’ ambulance hubs where emergency vehicles are prepared, maintained and cleaned by specialist staff ready for the clinical staff to use for treating patients. The trust now responds to over 1,000,000 999 emergency calls every year.
WMAS was the highest-performing ambulance services in England and one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2018-19. It is the best-performing English ambulance service in the NHS, being graded Outstanding by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors in January 2017 and 2019.
The trust was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of the Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Service NHS
The trust provides non-emergency patient transport services in Birmingham, the Black Country, Arden, Cheshire and the Wirral. The contract for Worcestershire, which has been run by the ambulance service for 30 years, ended in March 2020, when it lost to a private provider. In November 2019, the trust took over the running of the 111 service in the West Midlands (except Staffordshire).
The trust is led by chief executive Professor Anthony Marsh and chair Professor Ian Cumming OBE. It employs around 5,000 staff and is supported by a number of volunteers, including 750 community first responders. It has 15 ‘Make Ready’ ambulance hubs where emergency vehicles are prepared, maintained and cleaned by specialist staff ready for the clinical staff to use for treating patients. The trust now responds to over 1,000,000 999 emergency calls every year.
WMAS was the highest-performing ambulance services in England and one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2018-19. It is the best-performing English ambulance service in the NHS, being graded Outstanding by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors in January 2017 and 2019.
The trust was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of the Hereford & Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Coventry & Warwickshire Ambulance NHS Trust, and WMAS and Shropshire services.[3]
On 1 October 2007, the service merged with Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.[3][4]
It became an NHS foundation trust on 1 January 2013.[5]
It was announced on 14 November 2018, that the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust had gone into partnership with the University of Wolverhampton to form the UK's first university-ambulance trust. It has since signed similar agreements with Staffordshire University, Coventry University, the University of Worcester and The University of Warwick. As a result, the trust has changed its name to West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust.[6] [7]
In the 2017–18 contract negotiations with clinical commissioning groups (CCG), where Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG negotiated on behalf of all the West Midlands CCGs the trust sought financial compensation for the delays to ambulances caused by patient handover delays at local hospitals. WMAS wanted a "full second tariff" on top of the standard tariff for delays over 60 minutes, and "a smaller second tariff" for delays over 30 minutes, which would have come to around £6 million. After mediation by NHS England and NHS Improvement it was agreed to pay the trust an additional £2.1M in 2017–18. Worcestershire Acute Hospi On 1 October 2007, the service merged with Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.[3][4]
It became an NHS foundation trust on 1 January 2013.[5]
It was announced on 14 November 2018, that the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust had gone into partnership with the University of Wolverhampton to form the UK's first university-ambulance trust. It has since signed similar agreements with Staffordshire University, Coventry University, the University of Worcester and The University of Warwick. As a result, the trust has changed its name to West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust.[6] [7]
In the 2017–18 contract negotiations with clinical commissioning groups (CCG), where Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG negotiated on behalf of all the West Midlands CCGs the trust sought financial compensation for the delays to ambulances caused by patient handover delays at local hospitals. WMAS wanted a "full second tariff" on top of the standard tariff for delays over 60 minutes, and "a smaller second tariff" for delays over 30 minutes, which would have come to around £6 million. After mediation by NHS England and NHS Improvement it was agreed to pay the trust an additional £2.1M in 2017–18. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust were singled out as the main culprits.[8]
In 2017, it got an outstanding rating from the CQC - the only ambulance trust in England to do so. This has been continued with a new CQC report in 2019 improving its outstanding status.[2] Following the merger of the trusts, WMAS inherited a number of standalone control rooms. This resulted in five centres spread across the region operating independently using varying levels of technology at sites:[10] Millennium Point, Brierley Hill, Tollgate Drive, Stafford, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Bransford, Worcester and Dale St, Leamington Spa. On 28 November 2007, the trust agreed to go ahead with proposals for the reconfiguration of its emergency operations centres (EOC). WMAS now[when?] operates one of the most sophisticated[how?] dispatch systems in the country from two EOCs based at Millenium Point, Brierley Hill (Trust HQ) and Tollgate Drive, Stafford. They operate as a single virtual EOC so waiting calls at either of the trusts two EOCs can be answered by the other. This increases the speed at which vehicles can be dispatched.
In addition to the fleet, the service has several specialist teams available should the requirement arise:
The trust does not use either voluntary aid societies such as St John Ambulance and British R In addition to the fleet, the service has several specialist teams available should the requirement arise:
The trust does not use either voluntary aid societies such as St John Ambulance and British Red Cross or private ambulance.
The trust operates make ready hubs in Hereford, Worcester and Bromsgrove. There are also community stations in Malvern, Evesham and Stourport. In 2019, the trust lost the contract for patient transport in Worcestershire to a private firm, E-zec Medical Transport, which already operates the contract in Herefordshire. The trust said it lost out because it "refused to compromise on patient safety", and was not prepared to bid for the price offered.[12]
There are make ready hubs in Shrewsbury and Donnington (Telford) with community stations in Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Market Drayton & Oswestry.
There are make ready hubs in Stafford, Lichfield and Stoke-on-Trent With community sites in Biddulph, Uttoxeter and Leek.
There are make ready hubs in Shrewsbury and Donnington (Telford) with community stations in Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Market Drayton & Oswestry.
There are two make ready There are two make ready hubs in the Birmingham area sited at Hollymoor, and Erdington.
The Black Country is served by make ready hubs in Dudley, Willenhall and West Bromwich.
In addition, the HART & MERIT base is sited in Oldbury.
Resources
Localities
Herefordshire and Worcestershire
Shropshire
Staffordshire
Coventry & Warwickshire
StaffordshireThere are make ready hubs in Stafford, Lichfield and Stoke-on-Trent With community sites in Biddulph, Uttoxeter and Leek.
Coventry & Warwickshire
See also