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September 2016
Honley could have just one ambulance after shake-up By Danny Richardson A PROPOSED shake-up by the Yorkshire Ambulance Trust could leave just ONE ambulance running from Honley ambulance station. And now concerned staff have hit out at the plans, which would also see staff levels slashed by 40 per cent. The station serves most of the rural community in Kirklees, including the Holme Valley, Dearne Valley and Colne Valley. At present, it currently has an average of two ambulances running throughout a 24-hour period. However, under the new proposals, this could be reduced to just one ambulance per day. In addition to the ambulance cover, the station currently has two rapid response cars.
However, the new proposal would also reduce this to just one. Staff say that if the planned relocation of accident and emergency services from HRI to Calderdale Royal takes place, it will impact on their travelling times to hospital and will leave the area devoid of cover. A staff member, who did not wish to be named, told the Review: “We now increasingly find ourselves serving Penistone, Millhouse Green and the Stocksbridge area and transport patients to Barnsley District General and Sheffield Hospitals, therefore again depleting cover in our own area for long periods of time. “It appears the proposals are to target urban response times at the expense of rural areas. “There is high demand
in towns and cities and we understand the need to respond to these emergency calls but not at the expense of rural cover. “All this creates is a postcode lottery as to who gets an ambulance in the response time.” Questions have also been raised about the effect on patient health – with concerns over response time should the proposals be given the go ahead. “Every emergency situation and patient needs a timely response, irrespective of where they live, the demand on service increases year upon year, rural and urban,” the staff member continued. “Statistics show that a high percentage of life threatening time critical emergency calls are already not achieved in this area due to lack of available resources.
“So, as you can imagine a reduction in cover could potentially make this situation worse. “Many of the front line emergency staff have worked at Honley station for many years, we and our families live in the area, we did not feel we could sit back and accept this drastic reduction in cover for the communities we serve. “We felt it only right to campaign against this and hopefully by raising public awareness, people would see fit to help support us in our efforts to keep and maintain the levels of cover we have at present. As we are already stretched to deliver a service to our rural communities now, the staff at Honley feel this is a step too far and totally unacceptable.” Yorkshire Ambulance Trust was unavailable for comment.
Fundraisers came together to push Nora Batty and Compo from Sid’s Cafe to the Sands Recreation ground, raising much needed funds for the Hands Off HRI campaign. Around £500 was raised, providing funds to continue financing legal action to block proposals that would scrap Huddersfield’s accident and emergency department.
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