EAST: New Smaller Ambulances To Help Response Times

17 July 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 21 July 2013, 10:10

The first brand new vehicles announced earlier this year to help the East of England Ambulance service trust (EEAST) - are about to hit the streets.

From next week, EEAST will start using the first of 110 new Skoda Scout response cars.

This follows an investment of approximately £14m in new emergency ambulances and £2.3m in its response car fleet.

The new fleet of ambulances and rapid response vehicles (RRVs) being instated across the region as part of a new vehicle replacement programme. EEAST will have 145 A&E ambulances and 110 rapid response cars between now and the end of June in 2014.

Associate Director of Operations Support, Paul Henry told Heart: "We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure these vehicles are on the road in a timely manner.

Our fleet team are currently completing the procurement process and we anticipate that 50 of the new ambulances will be in service before Christmas and a further 47 coming into service during March 2014. The remaining 48 ambulances are expected to come into service between May and June 2014."

The fleet team will work closely with operational staff representatives to refresh and review the ambulance’s design and specification to ensure it fully meets patient and staff requirements.

The new vehicles are all rapid response vehicles, all 110 will be out on the road by Christmas 2013.