UNISON is challenging plans to close all but one of Nottinghamshire’s ambulance stations.
Figures show that rural areas of both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire are the worst in the East Midlands for response times to 999 calls.
Yet the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) aims to close 12 out of 13 stations in Notts County, and replace them with two ‘super hubs’ – one in Nottingham and the other in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
There would be 22 standby points where crews would wait for calls.
EMAS says that the move will cut emergency response times. But UNISON believes it could further expose the people living in rural areas.
National guidelines say that at least 75% of the most serious 999 calls – category A – should be responded to within eight minutes.
But figures for the first four months of 2012-13 show Notts County meeting only 67.95 per cent of those calls on time, and Derbyshire 66.06 per cent.
UNISON’s EMAS branch chair Mark Ward said he was “disappointed” by the figures and concerned by the employer’s proposals.
“It’s clearly our view that EMAS should be investing in more staff and vehicles to improve response times, not closing stations and, we believe, putting patients at risk.
“This is based on cost, not patients or improvements to response times.”
The threat to the county’s ambulance service typifies the sort of cost-cutting that is leading UNISON members throughout the country to gear up for the March for a Future that Works, on 20 October.
They will be taking to the streets in London, Glasgow and Belfast because they believe that government spending cuts and privatisation are not the way to get us out of recession.