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SAVE YOUR EOC
To augement the opposition to the WMAS proposal, an alternative proposal has been submitted to the Consultation Board
Please follow this link to view the Supplement to the Alternative Proposal
New posting 27th July 2007
A statement made by West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust managers needs to be unequivocally retracted.
There have been headlines in the press recently quoting WMAS Trust that "Hereford and Worcester Emergency Operations Centre is unfit for purpose". Far from being unfit for purpose, the EOC proved its ability to deal with the extensive flooding which affected Herefordshire and Worcestershire. WMAS termed the situation as "rapidly becoming a major emergency". All Hereford and Worcester EOC systems functioned as normal throughout the flooding. They coped with the adverse environmental conditions and the increased volume of calls. EOC staff at Brierley Hill found the CAD system failed them the on first day of the floods, Friday. Had H + W EOC already been closed and staff working from Brierley Hill EOC, calls for the entire area of Birmingham Black Country, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire, would have been taken on paper. How would they have coped? They wouldn't. How many patients would have suffered unnecessarily due to the mammoth delays getting an emergency response? Impossible to guess at, dangerous to risk again. All Hereford and Worcester EOC's calls were inputted as normal on computer, located on the MIS mapping system, allocated to the appropriate emergency response vehicle and operational staff. As roads closed one after another and satellite navigation systems attempted to send crews into flooded zones, EOC staff advised of alternative routes. The EOC absorbed the increase in calls: 229 on friday, 237 on Saturday and 226 on Sunday.
H + W EOC staff volunteered to come in off duty. Some worked a 24 hour shift, and more besides. Some slept in vacant rooms adjoining the EOC and in vacant upstairs offices rather than risk going home and then finding themselves unable to get back to work again. Some took the long way round to reach work, going many miles out of their way, but still getting there. Hereford and Worcester EOC divisional managers did likewise. People with 4 X 4s ferried colleagues to and from work. Everyone mucked in. Teamwork at its best.
WMAS management have congratulated managers and staff at Hereford and Worcester locality on how well they dealt with the flood situation. That's very much appreciated. Even better would be a retraction of the "unfit for purpose" comment and a statement made in its place that Hereford and Worcester EOC is indeed, fit for purpose. Bring to Bransford the new technology this Trust wishes to install, and make H + W EOC the robust, resilient EOC WMAS claim to be aspiring to create.
It would appear Hereford and Worcester EOC is more fit for purpose than Brierley Hill.
New posting 14th July 2007
NB modified 11th July 2007. Presentation date 25th July 2007. These documents contain significant changes, the most notable can be found in the 1st paragraph on page 11 - costs to provide suitable technology at Bransford and Shrewsbury have leapt from "at least £1/2 million" in original proposal to, "almost £1 million" in the modified proposal of 11th June. Were the costs not realistic in the first place or is this a flippant attempt to bolster a proposal? Should we be ousted from Bransford and Shrewsbury Controls, it's essential to know that the decision was based upon sound figures and not figures merely plucked out of the air. Are WMAS expecting these proposals to be taken seriously when they can change at the whim of the author(s)?
The Trust Board of the West Midlands Ambulance Service met 25th June 2007 to consult on the proposed reconfiguration of Emergency Operations Centres in the West Midlands. Part of the proposal is to close Hereford and Worcester EOC which takes 999 calls from members of the public, doctors’ surgeries and hospitals. The future of the EOC has been uncertain since merging with West Midlands Ambulance Service July 1st 2006. A 13 week period of public consultation starts July 2nd 2007. The aim of this website is to save the EOC from closure. The reason every resident of Herefordshire and Worcestershire should fight to retain this control room and its staff in its present location is that local knowledge is priceless and helps save lives. Technology can fail, computers can fail, satellite navigation systems can fail entirely or simply be wrong. New technology such as EISEC helps plot where a call is coming from if the call is from a BT line and 6 digits. If it’s 5 digits long no EISEC flags up alerting the call taker to where the address is. Similarly mobile phones fail to flag up addresses though with technology not yet in situ, will be able to plot to within 300 metres. If that happens to plot in the middle of a housing estate, that could be a lot of houses for a crew to search.
In an emergency situation, time equals lives saved. The government recognises this in it's demand that an emergency response be at the incident in 75% of "red calls" - the most immediately life threatening - within 8 minutes. Should Hereford + Worcester EOC be closed and 999 calls taken out of the area, a caller could first of all be put on hold in a queue for several minutes, as some other EOCs operate a stacking system when they have an influx of calls. The benefits of fast-acting clot-busting drugs could be diminished if there’s a delay in answering the 999 line. Then valuable seconds or even minutes could be wasted establishing the correct location of an incident. How many people outside of our area know Leominster has a letter o in it, that there are 2 Kingtons, one in Worcestershire, one in Herefordshire. Two Kinnersleys. The list could go on. Then there are the calls to “my dad‘s got chest pain, we‘re walking on the Malvern Hills “. “Where on the hills?” “The Beacon.” “Which beacon?” “I don’t know, I’m not from around here”. Local knowledge helps when you can ask can you see this, or that and work out where someone is. Hereford + Worcester EOC doesn't have the facility to stack calls, there is no answer message to kick in during periods of peak activity. They do have an impressive "call connect" time - the time between a call hitting the switchboard and an emergency medical dispatcher answering. Reassuringly, this call connect time, and indeed all the other response times recorded on an emergency incident, is genuine, measured correctly and completely trackable. For a moment think the unthinkable. You or a relative have a life-threatening emergency. Do you want to be connected in seconds to an emergency medical dispatcher in a local EOC who can give you advice until help arrives, or be in a queue on hold to someone in another county, who through no fault of their own, has no idea of the geography beyond their own boundaries? Don't let it happen here.
Closure of your EOC would be detrimental to the health and maybe the lives of the population of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Act now. Lobby your MP and local councillor. Please email the Board that convened 25th June 2007 at consultation@wmas.nhs.uk to register your support for Hereford and Worcester EOC remaining where it is, serving you and your community 365 days a year.
About the EOC
Emergency Medical Dispatchers in the EOC room take 999 calls and referrals from health care professionals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. Within seconds of a 999 call coming in, an emergency response is resourced to the incident. The EOC has 2 radio positions, 4 EMD call-taking positions, a First Contact Practitioner desk and an auditing desk. In all 28 staff are employed and their jobs are guaranteed whatever the outcome at the end of the consultation period. The issue is not about a building and jobs, but about delivering best patient care starting the moment the 999 line rings in Hereford and Worcester EOC.