Ten new paramedics and the same number of emergency care assistants are joining East Midlands Ambulance Service's (EMAS) Lincolnshire division this year. The county is also due 26 new
This follows a national report that ranked EMAS the worst performing trust in England in how it met the required eight-minute response time to emergency Category A calls in 2010–11. Regionally, it hit the target in 72.4% of cases, against the 75% standard.
EMAS's director of operations for Lincolnshire, Peter Jones, said: ‘Steps have been taken to improve performance, and they include working with our healthcare colleagues at acute hospitals to improve turnaround times and introducing 'call virtualisation' in our two control, which means either control room can pick up calls from anywhere in the region.
This means calls are answered faster, resulting in vehicles being deployed faster, plus EMAS's control is more robust in case of major business interruption, and we are investing in more front-line staff and new ambulance vehicles. Our current performance figures show we have made good progress and are moving in the right direction.’
