Friday 4th September 2015 – 2.30pm – Steve Parry
West Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive Anthony Marsh will take the opportunity to praise his staff and volunteers for their ‘outstanding’ professionalism and dedication to serving the people of the West Midlands when he gives his address to the Trust’s Annual Meeting of Membership.
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (WMAS) will be holding the AGM and Annual Members’ meeting from 6.30pm on Wednesday 16th September 2015, in the Conference Room, West Midlands Fire Service Headquarters, 99 Vauxhall Road, Birmingham B7 4HW.
Dr. Marsh said: “As we take this opportunity to look back at our performance during 2014-15, there is a great deal to be proud of, even though it has been an extremely challenging year:
- We attend more critical patients (Red 1) within eight minutes
- The number of patients who we were able resuscitate increased markedly which led to more lives being saved
- The number of complaints we received was down sharply while the number of compliments increased
- We continued to have one of the newest fleets of ambulances in the country with no vehicle over 5 years old
- WMAS continues to invest in the future with the number of new staff increasing with our plans to reach a 70% paramedic skill mix very much on target
“The year was undoubtedly a stern test for all concerned. We saw fluctuations in demand which meant we experienced some record breaking days for 999 calls. Unfortunately, we narrowly missed our Red 2 performance target and this was particularly disappointing given how hard our staff worked throughout the year. No ambulance Trust achieved this target last year.
“Despite the pressures our staff now work under it is to their immense credit that they continue to operate to the highest standards and give everything in order to improve the quality of care for patients. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to record my gratitude to them all as well as the hundreds of volunteers who help us every single day of the year.
“The Trust remains one of the top performing NHS organisations in the country. We are also seeing the benefits of our very successful recruitment campaigns to further increase our frontline paramedic numbers to maintain the current high standards of clinical care that benefit patients across the region.”
WMAS Chairman, Sir Graham Meldrum, added: “The high quality clinical care that is given to our patients on a daily basis remains exceptional and I wish to thank all of our staff and volunteers for their dedication and hard work.
“I would also pay tribute to the role that our Council of Governors has played as we take forward our innovative programme of developing the Trust and capturing feedback from patients about their experiences of using our services. This information is used to inform our planning priorities for the coming year.”
All members of the Trust are welcome to attend the Members’ meeting, as well as stakeholders and any interested members of the public. The meeting will include a presentation of the Trust’s activities over the past year and present the Trust’s Annual Report 2014-15, including Quality Accounts and financial statements which will be available on the Trust’s website following the meeting.
The meeting is open to the public. Anyone wishing to attend should email: kay.cullen@wmas.nhs.uk to reserve a seat as space at the venue is limited.
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- For details of the Annual Members’ Meeting:
http://www.wmas.nhs.uk/Pages/Council-of-Governors-Meeting-Dates.aspx.