AN MP has tabled an official written parliamentary question to the Department of Health and Social Care, asking what steps were being taken to reduce ambulance waiting times in Cumbria.

The Penrith and the Border MP, Neil Hudson, has long urged the Government to make sure cutting ambulance waiting times is a priority for rural areas such as his constituency where ambulances can have longer distances to travel to reach patients.

The Minister of State responsible for ambulances, Will Quince, replied to the question that NHS England has allocated an extra £150million to ease ambulance pressures in the current financial year.

It is also investing £20million to upgrade the ambulance fleet each year to 2025 and providing thousands more beds nationally to get patients into hospital faster and reduce handover delays.

Dr Hudson welcomed the investment which he believes will no doubt benefit people in Cumbria.

Cumbria is under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Ambulance Service (NWAS) but also relies on the Great North Air Ambulance Service, St John’s Ambulance, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and Beep Doctors Cumbria to handle medical emergencies.

Services are dire in some of the more rural areas of his constituency, like Alston.

Dr Hudson said: “I thank the Health Minister for his considered response and I'm really pleased the Health Department has pledged to deliver shorter response times for the most serious incidents enabled by speedier handover times so ambulances can get back on the road and respond to 999 calls.

“This is particularly welcome news for people in rural areas like here in Penrith and The Border where people can find themselves in need of acute care far away from a hospital equipped to handle the emergency."

This follows Dr Hudson’s work with local stakeholders looking to find a solution to the issue of acute care and transport in Alston.

Recently, he organised a roundtable with NWAS, Cumbria Health on Call, Save Alston Moor’s Services, Alston Moor Parish Council, Emergency Medical Technicians, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, to continue to provide support to the isolated communities across the North Pennines.

Alston is particularly of concern with its rural location and winding roads that sometimes have hairpin turns, and are a common site of crashes that result in injuries or death.

An ambulance takes around 30 minutes to get to Alston from Carlisle, where they will be coming from as the ambulance in Alston is removed, with critics of NWAS who have decided to remove the ambulance because of new training requirements will cost lives.

The Alston ambulance serves the town and the small hamlets dotted around it, and is staffed by volunteer emergency medical technicians.

It was confirmed back in July last year that Alston was to lose its ambulance.

This announcement resulted in controversy among the town’s residents and campaigners took to the streets to protest.

NWAS said they will be replacing the ambulance with a vehicle for the EMTs, of which there are just five now, to use in place of the fully kitted-out ambulance, which is due to appear in March.

Dr Hudson said last year in August in response to this announcement that he was “extremely saddened” to hear of any plans to remove the ambulance, which is based at the community hospital and has been staffed by emergency medical technicians who are not qualified paramedics and fulfil the role around other jobs.

The MP pledged to do what he can to ensure the ambulance is not lost, and added: “I very much understand the challenges that Alston faces due to how rural it is, and how absolutely crucial the local ambulance is in order to protect and support the community.

“It is important that we get stakeholders and the local community representatives around the table to discuss this fully to try and work on an acceptable solution and then that the local community are fully consulted on any potential changes.”

Technicians treat and stabilise patients until paramedics arrive from Carlisle or Penrith.

Fears that it could fold grew among campaigners after the number of people staffing it fell from 17 to six last year, and has now fallen to five this year, Alston Parish Council said.

However, it is believed that Alston could become a pilot location for a new, more effective, operating model.

Like other small and remote areas, Alston Moor operates a Community First Responders (CFR) model in which volunteers are trained in basic first-aid.

However, during the height of Covid and beyond, the number of available volunteers working at the ambulance, which does not convey any patients, decreased.

Some of the people operating on the community ambulance were classed as clinically vulnerable and were not able to cover the vehicle, and along with further training requirements that were enforced nationwide, gaps in provisions were worsened.

In response to the issue, NWAS aims to make Alston Moor the pilot for the Enhanced Community First Responders (ECFR) course.

ECFRs will have additional equipment and are trained by the ambulance service’s clinical staff.

The plan is for findings to be presented locally and nationally as an example of ECFR best practice, positioning Alston as a model of quality.

A working group was set up involving parish councillors from Alston, the EMTs, CFRs and North Cumbria CCG.

The group is looking at how more could be done to enhance the clinical skill set on the Moor.

The clinical group is looking at additional drugs and additional scope of practice for the CFRs.

Following on from this, over a year later in November 2022, Dr Hudson tabled the question: "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to work with NHS bodies in Cumbria to reduce ambulance waiting times in the region?"

Will Quince, minister of state for health and secondary care, answered in full: “NHS England has allocated an additional £15million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements, including in Cumbria.

“The NHS is also investing £20million to upgrade the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25, reducing its age profile, increasing productivity and reducing emissions. 

“NHS bed capacity will be increased by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds to reduce waiting times for admission from accident and emergency and ambulance handover delays and improve ambulance response times.

“NHS England is also providing targeted support to some hospitals with the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into hospitals to identify short and longer-term interventions.”

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