ON-CALL AMBULANCE HUB FACES THE AXE

AN ambulance hub covering Henley and the surrounding areas is to be scrapped.

Southern Medical Rescue, based at the Greys Green Business Centre, was established in 2019. It is a private ambulance provider contracted by the South Central Ambulance Service and the current deal ends on March 31.

The company has 12 ambulances with six on call every 24 hours and employs 46 employees, all of whom will lose their jobs.

South Central confirmed the end of the partnership but said it will look to increase its own workforce in future.

Andrew Richards, the head of operations at Southern Medical Rescue, said the decision was due to a lack of funding.

He said: “There is no money — it is nothing to do with demand. I have meetings with the NHS and there is no money. Normally, there are other NHS trusts in the country where people can go and work but at the moment, because there is no funding, every NHS trust is having to squeeze itself. Most NHS trusts have had to cut back on their private providers. There was no consultation to end our contract, there has been cutbacks every year but it has never been as bad as this. It has never affected this amount of people. That upsets me because there has always been somewhere for staff to go in other trust areas but there isn't.

“It is very difficult for paramedics, technicians and emergency care assistants to get a job anywhere. They are probably going to have to have a career change, which is sad, but you can’t blame Sout Central Ambulance Service for it.”

Mr Richards has worked in the industry in both the NHS and private sectors for 16 years. He said getting a contract involves a lot of work and normally the trust would renew the contract before it expires.

Sean Swan, the station officer, lives in Scotland but works in and around Henley for three weeks at a time. He was brought to work in the area during covid pandemic and says he dedicated to serving the town.

He said: “I’m incredibly disappointed that these people are forced to have to think about retraining from their chosen career, especially after five years of dedicated service during the global pandemic. Many of our guys are looking to retrain as bus drivers.

“I was requested to come to this area at the start of the pandemic. Initially, I said I would come here and help for three months. I have dedicated five to six years of travelling down here and working down here. I feel like part of the community.

“But now I am being told there's no place for me, I am devastated. It looks likely that I will have to go and drive buses.”

Mr Swan has 19 years working in the industry and is working on setting up a community ambulance service to Henley.

He said: “I am currently trying to secure funding to set up a not-for-profit ambulance service for Henley. I have love for this community and I am proud as all of us are to provide a vital public service.

“I am disappointed that through no fault of our own, we have been taken away from being able to give this community service. If we can get the funding to run this ambulance, then we can make sure the local community is kept safe.

Mr Swan said the community ambulance service if set up would work with the South-Central Ambulance Service and he wants a positive relationship with them.

Henley’s county and district councillor, Stefan Gawrysiak, said he was angry that the service would be cut and was worrying for residents. He said: “It is a privately commissioned service by South Central, it was commissioned before covid and was removed at very short notice.

“They cover for the NHS and we have all heard stories of ambulances being tied up at the Royal Berkshire Hospital with queues of ambulances outside A&E.

“Therefore, those ambulances at the Royal Berks are off the road and response times to go to an incident are poor at the moment.

“A grade one response time for a cardiac arrest should be eight minutes but there is no way that an ambulance from Reading is going to get to a cardiac arrest in Henley or Middle Assendon or Nuffield in eight minutes.

“The service should continue until South Central Ambulance service can give us the figures that they are going to turn up to a category one incident in eight minutes. If they reassure us that they are going to turn up to all category one incidents within eight minutes that is fine.

“I am convinced that they cannot and they will not do that. I am extremely worried that these people are going to get left. An ambulance driver told me that there was a cardiac arrest in Middle Assendon, they were on their way to Greys Green, and they got there in four minutes.

“The ambulance from Greys Green got there in four minutes the one from Reading got there in 25 minutes, it is critically clear that they are in fact not providing a service for the residents of Henley.

“Southern Central Ambulance service has not taken into account that South Oxfordshire is one of the most rural places in England.

“There are lots of settlements and they are spread out and there is no way that they can get to a critical incident in the time, without this service.

“They need to issue a contract for six months so we can get the data to reassure the residents of Henley, that in fact, they are going to be provided with a first-class service. It is all to do with money, I am really angry that this has happened so suddenly without warning to the company who has been providing this service.

“There are 12 ambulances six on the road 24/7, the company employs about 40 employees and to terminate the contract is shocking beyond belief. This cover is needed for rural South Oxfordshire. South Central needs to consult and provide us with explanations.”

A spokeswoman for South Central Ambulance Service said: “We contract our private providers for an agreed level of operational hours and for an agreed period of time.

“It is commercially confidential to disclose how many hours each company provides, however we can confirm that the contract with Southern Medical expires at the end of March and will not be renewed.

“While we have been working to recruit our own substantive workforce, we have been contracting private providers to support our ability to get to our patients when they need us.

“We have successfully recruited to our own workforce and therefore as a result reducing our contracts with our private providers in line with our planned reduction and investment in our own workforce.

“Stopping using some of our private providers is in line with our planned reduction and we aim to remove the reliance on these companies over the coming three to five years.

“An ambulance crew may start and finish their shift from this location, they are immediately dispatched wherever our demand might require them across our Trust, and therefore we have not had ambulances permanently based out of Henley for a number of years.”