Five-year plan to make trust great

THE North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) has unveiled plans aimed at reducing “unnecessary” hospital admissions amid the need to make £48.6 million of savings.

The trust’s five-year business plan outlines initiatives to reduce the number of patients attending accident and emergency, including over the phone advice, treatment at home or arranging a GP visit.

The “Good 2 Great” report says “millions” of patients every year seek or receive care in hospital when in reality they could have been helped much closer to home.

Instead of rushing all patients to hospital the trust is seeking to improve its “See and Treat” and “Hear and Treat” initiatives, which assess non-urgent needs earlier and frees up ambulances to attend to the more serious, life-threatening calls.

NWAS has invested £500,000 in providing more appropriate responses to non-life-threatening emergencies — such as its urgent care advice and triage line. It is partner to the NHS 111 service which took over from NHS Direct last year.

Other main areas for focus are improving quality of care to patients and to ensure the organisation is one people want to work for.

Chief executive Bob Williams said staff have been consulted throughout and they have had a lot of input into how they will be rolling out their aims such as delivering care closer to home and making the service a great place to work.

He said: “Our staff is our greatest asset and as they see day to day the impact we have on the lives of people in the North-West, we believed it was vital to understand how they perceived the trust and thought we could improve.”

You can view the “Good 2 Great” document and send your comments at g2g@nwas.nhs.uk.
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