Lincolnshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee is requesting a review of East Midlands Ambulance Service’s (EMAS) new plans, as it believes them to be “flawed”.
The committee plans to write to the Secretary of State for the review after a recent meeting expressed concerns over the EMAS consultation process and response times.
EMAS proposed last year to remove the ambulance stations in Lincolnshire and install Community Ambulance Posts, Standby Points and in some areas state-of-the art “Super Stations”.
The service believes these hubs and points will result in better response times and care.
Councillor Christine Talbot, Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire, said: “We believe the consultation is flawed; key parties were not invited to comment, new options not consulted on, and both public and stakeholder events poorly attended.
“Despite the goalposts changing, and new options being introduced at the 11th hour, EMAS’ proposals still entirely fail to address how they will start meeting response time targets for our county.
“EMAS has not met targets for the last 21 months in Lincolnshire and this isn’t good enough. It is not acceptable for voluntary organisations such as LIVES and other emergency services, who make a valuable contribution to response times, to prop up the ambulance service.
“The committee therefore has no confidence that EMAS’ pledge of “Being the Best” will happen in Lincolnshire without considerable extra financing and will therefore be referring the matter to the Secretary of State.
“Our ultimate goal is to return a dedicated ambulance service to the county.”
Better service for residents
Lincoln MP Karl McCartney visited Lincoln County Hospital on March 21 alongside the Health Minister, Dr Dan Poulter.
He said: “I’m pleased that they’re obviously examining what the ambulance service have done, I’m not sure of the full details of the consultation project and the process that has been followed, but these consultations are in a way set down in statute, and there’s a quite easy template to follow, so I’d be surprised if they haven’t followed the process they should have if they’re been called to answer by the Scrutiny Committee at the County Council.
“I want to make sure the the service my constituents are provided with by the ambulance serve are as good as, if not better than, anywhere else in the country.
“I’ve spent some time with those working in the ambulance service in Lincoln and across Lincolnshire going out on calls etc, and I know how hard they work, but this is more management issues, and what resources are put forward for the service to ensure my constituents receive the level of service they require.”
A statement from EMAS argued that the service is dedicated to improving response times and patient care, and these plans will help.
“Our plans for Lincolnshire will improve response times. Similar plans have worked very well for rural areas in other areas of the country.
“There’s no guarantee that a devolved ambulance service for Lincolnshire would be effective. When Lincolnshire had its own service the performance targets were less exacting. Such a service would also cost more as it would need its own bureaucracy.
“In Lincolnshire we’re proposing to have four hubs, six ambulance stations and 23 community ambulance stations. This means full fleet services (mechanics to maintain and repair vehicles) will be available in four locations in Lincolnshire. Currently there are no fleet services in the county.
“Our aim is to improve response times, patient care and the working life of our staff and we believe these changes, together with the additional investment needed, help us meet these aims.”
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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
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