The map, indicating the changes in the proposal. The blue dots show where the new Community Ambulance Posts and Standby points will be and green dots are proposed “Super Stations”, while the red dots depict the present ambulance stations.
In a bid to improve its service and be more cost-effective, the regional ambulance service is proposing to remove the ambulance stations in Lincolnshire.
Instead of ambulance stations, Lincolnshire will get Community Ambulance Posts, Standby Points and in some areas state-of-the art “Super Stations”.
Community Ambulance Posts will be based in police, fire, or other healthcare and partners’ existing buildings.
These will be the most typical place crews will respond to calls, in addition to making use of the various facilities at the rest points.
Standby points will be used where rest facilities do not currently exist but an ambulance point is need to respond quickly.
Meanwhile the “Super Stations” will be where crews will start their shift to collect a fully-equipped vehicle, plus be a base for clinical and support staff.
There will be 26 Community Ambulance Posts, Standby Points and Hubs in use daily in Lincolnshire with 4 proposed hubs, instead of the current 18 Ambulance Stations.
The proposed areas are where EMAS feel the ambulance crews will be able to respond to calls most effectively, based on call data, local knowledge of road networks and other information.
A public consultation, called Being the Best, has been launched in Lincolnshire for residents to have their say on proposed changes to East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS).
Phil Milligan, East Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive, said: “We are committed to being the best ambulance service we can be, and we know that we need to fundamentally improve the way we work to achieve this.
“These proposals have been developed with our clinical colleagues, and will ensure that we provide the best possible emergency and urgent care for all those living and working in the East Midlands.
“The proposals focus on the way we deliver our services from stations and standby points. We must ensure that we spend our limited resources in making our frontline services that best they can be, rather than on updating old buildings that are not fit for the future.
“We’re really keen to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas on these proposals, and help us to shape our future.”
Dr James Gray, East Midlands Ambulance Service Medical Director, said: “Our current buildings are in need of major repairs and refurbishment, with an estimated cost of £13 million needed to put them right.
“Fifty years after some of them were built, some are not in the best place to allow us to respond quickly nor are they based in the right places to achieve the most effective service.
“Our emergency ambulance vehicles are our mobile emergency treatment centres. We don’t provide direct medical care at our stations.”
Have your say
As well as local action group meetings to see the proposals, EMAS will be holding consiltations in a number of Lincolnshire towns and Lincoln. These are:
October 18 – 1pm start
Memorial Hall, Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, DN35 8AH
October 22 – 2pm start
Princess Royal Sports Arena, Wyberton Fen, Boston, PE2 7PB
October 24 – 6pm start
The Bentley Hotel, Newark Road, South Hykeham, Lincoln, LN6 9NH
October 29 – 2pm start
South Kesteven District Council, Chambers, St Peters Hill, NG31 6PZ
October 30 – 10am start
Ruston Sports & Social Club, Newark Road, Lincoln, LN6 8RN
The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite