June 5, 2014 4.04 pm This story is over 117 months old

EMAS must make £6m savings to meet budget

EMAS budget cuts: The ambulance service will need to find savings of £6 million in the next year to make ends meet.
Photo: Ryan McNamara

The East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) will need to find savings of £6 million in the next financial year in order to make ends meet.

Service bosses revealed the need for further cost-cutting at a board meeting on June 5.

The ambulance service has drawn up a savings plan to see £6.2 million of funds retained in areas including decreasing fuel and sharing stations.

It is thought that some stations may also close.

Despite the savings in its £140 million budget, ambulance bosses said the aim is to “have no adverse impact on front-line services” and pledged to hit response times.

EMAS say the Cost Improvement Programme will include:

  • Reducing management costs
  • Making savings on the costs of operating the fleet of over 850 vehicles by purchasing more new vehicles – lowering the cost of insurance and maintenance
  • Introducing Community Ambulance Stations (many of which will be shared premises with other NHS, Emergency Service or Local Authority organisations) and then ‘twinning’ some stations
  • Negotiating better contract terms for services such as vehicle fuel and energy costs

An EMAS spokesperson said: “All NHS organisations are required to make efficiency savings and EMAS is no different.

“It’s important to point out that our Cost Improvement Programme is about us making the best use of our finances and resources.

“The savings we make will have no adverse impact on the quality of patient care. They will be achieved by reducing our administrative, managerial and support service costs – not frontline 999 services.

“We have recently achieved improvements in our response times to 999 calls and everyone in EMAS is working hard to make further progress. The Cost Improvement Programme will not jeopardise this.”