Partnership to benefit patients

Photo: Darren Robinson

NWAS Ambulances

AMBULANCE trusts in the North of England have teamed up to work better together in a bid to improve efficiency and provide benefits for patients and staff.

North West Ambulance Service has joined with North East and Yorkshire Ambulance Trusts to launch the Northern Ambulance Alliance (NAA) so that together, they can examine efficiency through joint procurement exercises, make major changes to IT, and access specialist expertise and learning from each other's achievements.

The leadership of the three northern ambulance services believe there are greater benefits to be achieved working between organisations and other services.

Derek Cartwright, chief executive of North West Ambulance Service, added: "The NAA will work within the existing structure of organisations and their legal frameworks.

"The boards of all three trusts will still have responsibility for their individual service but will also consider the work and objectives of the NAA when making decisions."

Practice

The aim of the NAA will be to continue to improve quality and service delivery for all patients in the North of England with cross border working for clinicians for the benefit of all patients in the North of England, sharing examples of best practice and innovation, and identifying opportunities for procurement through economies of scale and standardisation of equipment.

Yvonne Ormston, chief executive of North East Ambulance Service, said: "Sharing borders as we do, the three ambulance trusts have always worked together for the benefit of patients and the communities we respectively serve.

"The NAA will allow us to work even closer as clinicians, sharing best practice and innovation at a scale that has not previously been possible."

The organisations will not merge however a new body will be created with the aim of facilitating greater collaboration and realising benefits individual trusts are unlikely to be able to achieve on their own.

The move follows ambulance services collaborating more closely with police and fire rescue services, with tangible benefits to patient outcomes and staff safety.

Explore

Rod Barnes, chief executive of Yorkshire Ambulance Service, concludes: "This is a great opportunity to explore how we can deliver the improvements expected from the ambulance service within existing resources and for the benefit of patients.

"This might mean the procurement of a single agreed vehicle specification for all three services, or identifying savings through the standardisation of maintenance and equipment contracts - which is something that has proved elusive at a national level."