Jamie Arrowsmith – Thursday 24th July 2025 – 9am.
“I am enormously proud of all of our staff, students and volunteers and firmly believe that the public of the West Midlands should be justifiably proud of the team that protects them.”
The words of West Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive, Anthony Marsh, ahead of the Trust’s Annual General Meeting next Wednesday (30th July). The meeting, which will be held online, will provide a review of 2024-25 and also look ahead to the rest of the current year and beyond.
Chief among the review will be the extraordinary lengths that staff and volunteers, from all sections of the organisation, went to to overcome the loss of 380,000 hours to hospital handovers. It will also review the Trust’s Quality Account and financial statements.
The meeting takes place via Microsoft Teams at 2pm and provides an opportunity for members of the public to hear from the Board of Directors, representatives from the Council of Governors and staff from the service.
Mr Marsh said: “We have faced many challenges as a service throughout the last year, with hospital handover delays effectively meaning we lost 86 ambulances every day.
“In more positive news, we continue to have the best call taking in the country with the fewest number of calls waiting over two minutes to be answered, despite receiving 1.78m emergency 999 calls last year. Another area where we lead the country is our ability to deal with cases in our control rooms. Over 20% are now dealt with by our experienced team of paramedics and nurses. In addition, we refer over 400 calls a day to urgent care providers which allows patients to get the care that best meets their needs.
“While far too many patients have waited much longer than we would want to get the help they need, I have been moved by the record number of patients who have taken the time to contact us to say, ‘thank you’. While none of our staff do the job for that reason, there is no question it makes a huge difference to the staff who helped you. It is truly appreciated.”
WMAS Chairman, Prof, Ian Cumming, added: “While it is often quoted that staff are the most important part of any organisation, I can say that this is 100% true of our Trust. Whichever part of the Trust they work in, they all contribute in their own way to supporting patient care.
“While we are rightly proud of the work that we do to recruit new staff, we are working equally hard to retain staff. We have seen the number of staff leaving slow considerably and have the lowest turnover of staff in the ambulance sector, which suggests that we are making good progress.
“On behalf of the Board, I want to thank all staff, wherever they work in the organisation, for all that they have done during this last year. Equally, my thanks to the many students and volunteers who also work with us.
“Together, their dedication to saving lives and helping people in their hour of need is second to none and I thank every one of them you for what they have done over the last 12 months.”
To join our Annual General Meeting please click here.