East: MPs Debate Ambulance Service Failures

25 June 2013, 06:00

A debate's being held in Parliament later about the state of our ambulance service.

MPs have been amongst those calling for changes after the Trust failed to reach its response time targets.

Last month a highly critical report was published into the service that said it is "suffering with sub standard operational performance'' and has recommended that managers act "urgently'' to restore the achievement of response time targets and get new paramedics into the organisation "as soon as possible''.

Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey is one of the MPs who've called for the Trust's board to step down.

She spoke to Heart ahead of the debate in parliament later:

MPs Ambulance Debate - MP Therese Coffey

In April, the trust - which caters for almost six million people across the region  - admitted that it is not delivering its 999 service "well enough'', saying that it was letting both "patients and staff down''.

Dr Anthony Marsh, who is chief executive of West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust was asked to come and look at the ambulance service here and write a report about what he found.

He told them there is a "lack of accountability'' at the trust which has led to "critical decision-making ceasing in some areas''.

In his report, Dr Marsh made 25 recommendations to turn around the trust's poor performance including an urgent recruitment drive to fill the 400 front line vacancies.