Half Wiltshire's 999 call staff depart

7:00pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in Latest News

Almost half the staff in the ambulance control room in Wiltshire have opted to take redundancy rather than move to Bristol.

Great Western Ambulance Service, now South Western Ambulance Service, said last year that the control room in Devizes would close to save £700,000 a year.

The control room shut on March 5. Of the 28 operators there, 15 decided to move to Bristol while 13 decided to take redundancy and have now left the organisation, a spokesman said.

The Wiltshire ambulance control room was in the joint emergency services control room at police headquarters, Devizes. Operators taking calls to the police and fire service remain there.

Comments(13)

KazVan says...
8:09pm Thu 21 Mar 13

This should be of no surprise! , Who would want to travel to Bristol from the Devizes/Chippenham area to carry out an extremely stressful job? Would make your 8 hour shift, potentially a 10/11 day. Now that may be acceptable for the 100k a year Merchant Banker, but not average Joe. I hope that the staff that opted for redundancy were offered help to re-train etc and that they secure new employment soon.

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KazVan says...
8:10pm Thu 21 Mar 13

This should be of no surprise! , Who would want to travel to Bristol from the Devizes/Chippenham area to carry out an extremely stressful job? Would make your 8 hour shift, potentially a 10/11 day. Now that may be acceptable for the 100k a year Merchant Banker, but not average Joe. I hope that the staff that opted for redundancy were offered help to re-train etc and that they secure new employment soon.

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1984 says...
9:55pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Just one more step to privatisation,the Ambulance Service is now a buissness nothing less................
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Mrs Donnyfly says...
10:22pm Thu 21 Mar 13

1984 wrote:
Just one more step to privatisation,the Ambulance Service is now a buissness nothing less................

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And that's a problem because.......?

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redrum says...
5:06am Fri 22 Mar 13

Because it should be about the patients best interests as well, just like care everyone is a person not just another number and should be treated as an individual. What happened to person centred care?

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Mrs Donnyfly says...
7:33am Fri 22 Mar 13

There is no reason why an ambulance service provided by the private sector would not consider the interests of patients - unless it wanted to go out of business pretty quickly. Why is there an assumption that a government agency would do a better job when there is little evidence to back that up?

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officer1 says...
8:47am Fri 22 Mar 13

In response to donnyfly I feel that everyone should be made aware that Wiltshire sectors performance upon closing was the best performing ambulance sector in the country and had year on year improvement for the past three years.
111 is being run by Harmoni a private company. Since coming into effect it has put increased demand on the ambulance service and has call handlers that have limited medical training and knowledge. This took over from NHS Direct where you would speak to a clinically trained member of staff. Progress ?
Those staff that took redundancy were offered limited guidance however much of this was not passed onto staff that were leaving. A trainer being paid to sit in a room and the staff not being made aware he was there. Waste of time and tax payers money !!

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beetawix says...
10:30am Sat 23 Mar 13

re "Those staff that took redundancy were offered limited guidance however much of this was not passed onto staff that were leaving.

so it was offered and not taken, or what?
and how was it limited? was some guidance deliberately held back?

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officer1 says...
11:36am Sat 23 Mar 13

in reponse to beetawix most staff attended one training session to assist in finding alternative employment. Staff requested interview training which was arranged however the details of this training was not passed onto staff to attend. I would not say this was deliberate just another case of bad communication !!

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moonraker77 says...
8:15pm Sun 24 Mar 13

Mrs Donnyfly wrote:
There is no reason why an ambulance service provided by the private sector would not consider the interests of patients - unless it wanted to go out of business pretty quickly. Why is there an assumption that a government agency would do a better job when there is little evidence to back that up?
Hope you are right Mrs D. Only time will tell :)

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seabass64 says...
9:53am Sun 14 Apr 13

Having come across this CazVan, the shifts were 12 hours and people from Chippenham were forced to go, also those from Swindon. All appeals from those people lost their rights to redundancy pay.
Mrs D I hope you are correct in showing that a private sector can run the 111 system however they have spent little of their contract money on training and the amount of ridiculous calls sent through to the Ambulance service is now impacting on REAL emergencies and I hope to god no one loses a life whilst they are responding to a red call which is not a real emergency.
Good luck to the people who moved they have been set up to fail and I hope the people of Wiltshire do not suffer due to the closure of the control room.

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officer1 says...
8:16am Mon 15 Apr 13

well said seabass64 ! however I have grave concerns that the people of Wiltshire will suffer and those in Swindon who are now being controlled by Gloucester are likely to be largely effected if not already being effected !

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seabass64 says...
7:49am Tue 16 Apr 13

officer1 wrote:
well said seabass64 ! however I have grave concerns that the people of Wiltshire will suffer and those in Swindon who are now being controlled by Gloucester are likely to be largely effected if not already being effected !
I do believe they are already seeing the impact. Not only because of the 111 system but to maybe the lack of local knowledge. All I can do is wish the control staff luck and know they do their jobs to their best potential as patients are their first thoughts...shame it can't be said about the private sector

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