News Release

1st March 2007

PRIME MINISTER AND AMBULANCE SERVICE

Michael Fabricant raised the question of the merger between the Staffordshire and the West Midlands Ambulance Services with Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday. (Wednesday 28th February). There follows below the report of the exchange as recorded in Hansard together with Michael Fabricant's reactions and what he will do next.

West Midlands/Staffordshire Ambulance Services

Q5. [123709] Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con): If he will make a statement on the proposed merger of the West Midlands and Staffordshire ambulance services.

The Prime Minister: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced on 16 May, the intention is that Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust and the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust should work together to prepare for a merger. A timetable has not been set for the merger, but a partnership board has been established to take forward work relating to it.

Michael Fabricant: I am grateful to the Prime Minister for that answer. He might know that in fact a merger is now being proposed. The Health Secretary gave assurances to Staffordshire Members of Parliament that there would be no merger until the West Midlands trust had reached the same high standard as Staffordshire. However, if, God forbid, one was to have a cardiac arrest in Staffordshire, one would have a 60 per cent. chance of recovery, whereas in the west midlands one would have a 65 per cent. chance of dying. The standard has not yet been reached, yet a merger is still being proposed. What can the Prime Minister say to people in Staffordshire to assure them that our ambulance service will not be degraded through that merger?

The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly reasonable point. Obviously, the terms of the merger are extremely important. Within the past few days, the partnership board chairman has said:

"the whole process is about levelling up performance. Staffordshire leads the country in certain areas"

I think that he was talking about the idea of the return of spontaneous circulation-

and it is the task of the West Midlands Trust to bring its performance up to those levels."

In other words, this is clearly about the West Midlands trust coming up to the very high standard that has been set by Staffordshire, not the other way round.

Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands) (Lab): Is it not the case that even after any merger Staffordshire Ambulance Service will remain an autonomous locality, operating to the same methods and standards as at present, including using the LUCAS device, which aids resuscitation, and its pioneering system status management, which has put Staffordshire Ambulance Service at the top of the national ambulance tables for eight years? As my right hon. Friend says, this is about levelling performance up, not down.

The Prime Minister: I assure my hon. Friend that that is precisely what it is about. She is absolutely right in saying that the purpose is to get the synergy that is there from the merger, but at the same time to lift the standard of West Midlands up to that of Staffordshire. She is also right in saying that the location issue will be very important and has been properly dealt with. In addition, thanks to the investment that we are putting in, Staffordshire PCT has had an increase in funding of about 20 per cent., which will help the ambulance service to maintain its very high standards.