External Publications
2011 - 2012
Commissioning vital to improving care in rural areas
A new report from the Ambulance Service Network says changes to
the way ambulances are measured could help improve response times
in rural areas but only if there is clarity on how services will be
commissioned.
Ambulance services see the move from time targets to outcomes as
a major opportunity to improve care for patients in rural
areas. However, they are concerned that without clarity over
commissioning arrangements, the potential to improve care will be
lost as confusion and conflicting priorities make it impossible for
ambulance services to offer consistent standards of care to
patients.
The report also makes it clear that, while response targets have
helped improve ambulance services considerably, they were too
inflexible to reflect the realities of geography and transport
links on the ground. With a move to performance measurement
based on outcomes, time will of course be an important factor -
especially in the most serious cases. However, by
concentrating ambulance services on how good the care they offer
is, the move to outcomes should benefit patients across the
board. Many NHS ambulance services meet the challenge of
providing high quality care by working with local communities and
using volunteers.
The report sets out all the innovative ways that ambulance trusts
are working with the rest of the NHS to tackle the fact that rural
areas are harder to get to.
2009 - 2010
The Lightfoot Report marks a significant point in the history of
West Midlands Ambulance Service. The Trust has worked with
Commissioners to examine the current funding of the service and
ways of improving the way we help patients in their hour of
need. The report sets out a number of clear recommendations
about how we will move forward.
2008 - 2009
Archive Documents