Fallings Park ambulance base is relocating to a new community station as part of the service’s ‘Make Ready’ scheme.
The existing station on Park Lane, Fallings Park Industrial Estate is to be sold off for £80,000 and crews will now be based in a new facility at Falling Park Community Fire Station on Bushbury Road.
‘Make Ready’ was implemented by the former Staffordshire Ambulance Service fifteen years ago, making it one of the most successful ambulance services with some of the fastest response times in England.
The Make Ready programme involves the creation of 24/7 fleet maintenance hubs where a dedicated team of Ambulance Fleet Assistants prepare, service and maintain the fleet of ambulances.
Oncoming ambulance crews collect their ‘made-ready’ vehicle and go to Community Ambulance Stations from where they respond to 999 calls.
The aim of the ‘hubs’ is to cut down on ambulance crew ‘downtime’; time when the crew are dealing with issues such as cleaning their vehicle or restocking – time when they are not able to respond to medical emergencies.
Fallings Park councillor Steve Evans told the Express & Star: “It makes sense to jointly share the cost and as long as the service is not affected I don’t see a problem.
“The ambulance service has to make savings like everyone else and it is better for them to do so by sharing buildings than cutting services.
“But people will want assurances that the 999 service is protected.â€
West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Chris Kowalik said: “The new community ambulance stations will be leased at a fraction of the costs associated with the currently owned buildings. The savings made on these buildings will be channelled into the frontline ambulance service instead.â€
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