AMBULANCE crews are getting to 999 calls in Worcestershire much faster thanks to a combination of hard work and millions of pounds in extra cash from health chiefs As a result they are helping the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust to reach its targets.

Ambulance crews hit all their targets for the most serious 999 calls in the county for the last three months following a cash injection of £11.8 million from 17 primary care trusts in the West Midlands.

This meant that in Worcestershire the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust also hit its targets for responding to the most serious life-threatening calls such as cardiac arrests, strokes and bad car accidents. However, it still has to hit its targets for the region as a whole.

Worcestershire ambulance crews got to 77.4 per cent of category A 999 calls within eight minutes in September; 76 per cent in October and 76.5 per cent in November. The target is 75 per cent.

The trust reacted to 98.3 per cent of category A calls within 19 minutes in September; 97.8 per cent in October and 96.5 per cent in November – all above the national target of 95 per cent.

They also hit all their targets for the less serious emergency calls in categories A and B in Worcestershire.

The trust missed the 75 per cent target in Worcestershire every month between April and August blaming increased demand from more 999 calls.

Nick Henry, divisional commander for the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “It’s a whole team approach and everyone is pulling together.

“The crews and the emergency operations centre are working really well together and the new computer-aided dispatch system has bedded in extre-mely well.”

We previously reported in your Worcester News how the 17 primary care trusts in the West Mid-lands gave the trust £11.8 million on top of its £165 annual budget for 2009/10.

Murray MacGregor, the trust’s director of communications, said the money was helping crews but said it was also down to an “astonishing amount of hard work” from staff.

He said the public could help by calling 999 only as a ‘last resort’, and using self-care or other forms of healthcare where appropriate. Mr MacGregor said performance in Worcestershire had improved despite a rising number of calls - 4,588 in the first week of December this year, compared with 4,464 in the same week last year.

The trust is still not yet hitting all the category A call targets within the West Midlands as a whole.

The trust got to 70.6 per cent of category A calls within eight minutes in September; 70.7 per cent in October and 73.6 per cent in November.

The trust now employs two new emergency care practitioners (ECPs) on top of the existing eight.

ECPs are more skilled than paramedics, can prescribe more drugs and are qualified to treat wounds which might otherwise require hospital treatment. This can stop pat-ients having to attend A&E and frees up ambulance crews to attend other emergencies.