£2.6 million bill for private ambulances

West Midlands Ambulance Service spent more than £2.6million on private ambulance crews in six months because of a shortage of paramedics in the region which stretched their resources, it was revealed today.

Three companies were employed between October 1, 2009, and March 31, to provide 16 ambulance teams to attend 999 calls in the West Midlands. The private firms worked 2,734 shifts in the six months, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. Most were 12 or 10-hour shifts.

The total cost of £2,688,142 was revealed in an answer to a question posed under the Freedom of Information Act

Ambulance bosses said they had faced an increase in callouts compared with previous years which put extra pressure on their already stretched resources.

The extra crews helped them to meet national targets for the second half of the year despite the swine flu outbreak and the harsh winter.

The trust, which has launched a training and recruitment drive to help plug the gap, is now using only one private company.

And that contract is due to end at the end of April.

Ambulance spokesman Murray MacGregor said: "The trust took the step of using private ambulances after an independent report by PCT commissioners in the summer of 2009 identified a shortfall in ambulance resources.

"Working with commissioners and the Strategic Health Authority, significant additional funding was made available to the trust.

"The trust's preferred option has always been to employ and train our own staff.

"Much of the additional resource was used to increase its workforce and to train other existing staff to higher levels.

"However, in the short term and until the trust could train its own staff, it was decided to use private vehicles which were staffed by state registered paramedics."

He added: "So far in the current financial year (2010-11), the trust is the top performing service in the country.

"The trust has no plans to use private providers again unless circumstances change substantially."