11 July 2007
Ms P Doran
Head of HR for BBC&S Locality
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Millennium Point
Waterfront Business Park
Waterfront Way
Brierley Hill
Dudley DY5 1LX

Dear Pat

Thank you for your letter dated 3 July 2007 in respect of the consultation on the proposed reconfiguration of Emergency Operation Centres in the West Midlands.
As we have already made clear UNISON have a number of concerns in relation to the proposals on the future of EOC configuration in the region, but before we are able to formally respond to the consultation document we would request further and better particulars in respect of the information that you have already provided. I would therefore be grateful if you could answer, at your earliest available opportunity, the questions which I pose below. If you are not the appropriate person to answer these questions I would be grateful if you could forward it on to whoever is.
In order to assist you in answering the questions I pose, I will relate them directly to the appropriate paragraphs in the consultation document.
I would be grateful if you could confirm who are the authors of the document headed Consultation on the Proposed Reconfiguration of Emergency Operations Centres in the West Midlands. I would also be grateful if you could confirm whether any of these authors will be involved in making the final decision at the end of the period of public consultation. If, as we suspect, that the authors of this document are indeed the decision makers in respect of this process, I would be grateful if you could confirm how the service intends to ensure that the publics views are taken into consideration and not merely sidelined to give the impression that the public have been listened to.
In paragraph 1.3 of the document reference is made to “a huge amount of work has been undertaken to review what can be done to improve the service provided to patients etc”. Can you provide us with evidence of the work that has been undertaken to review EOC provision and in particular give us examples of the staff and trade union input into this work. Could you also provide us with copies with all feasibility studies that have been carried out that have led to the proposals outlined in this document.
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In section 2 of the document, reference is made to the number of staff employed to work within the current EOC’s and percentage of calls that are received across the region. Can you please provide us with evidence of the minimum staffing levels that are currently required to operate each of the existing EOC’s. Can you demonstrate to us what steps are taken to transfer the work to other EOC’s, should the staffing levels drop below these minimum standards. Can you also provide us with sickness absence rates for each individual EOC over the past 5 years and also examples of the staff turnover rates for each individual EOC over the past 5 years.
Can you also provide specific evidence as to where, in the past 12 months, either due to capacity, staffing levels or technical problems, calls have been diverted to other EOC’s outside of the existing localities, to enable them to deal with the 999 calls.
In section 4 of the document, reference is made to independent data that shows the Trust answers phones more quickly now than it has ever done before. Can you provide clear evidence of this data to demonstrate the improvement in performance.
Reference is also made in this section to the fact that there will be no compulsory redundancies. Can you provide clear evidence to demonstrate what will happen if staff do not transfer from Shrewsbury or Bransford and are unable, for whatever reason, to transfer to front line duties. Can you also demonstrate how you intend to maintain local knowledge within the EOC’s if, as we suspect, a large number of staff do not transfer to the new EOC provision.
In section 5 of the document reference is made to the well rehearsed questioning procedures, which will be used to enable staff to identify patient locations. Can you please provide us with evidence of these procedures and demonstrate how they will be implemented into the new EOC provision, for those members of staff who do not have sufficient local knowledge, such as is currently utilised in the existing EOC configuration.
Can you also confirm whether all addresses are currently logged onto the existing IT systems. Can you also demonstrate how addresses that are not logged onto the existing IT system are identified, particularly if the calls are referred to an alternative EOC outside of the locality.
Reference is also made in section 5 to cross border working and the fact that the service will now operate in a regional capacity. Can you provide us with examples of how and where vehicles are currently being dispatched outside of their locality and the effect that this has on the resourcing and responding to 999 calls within that locality.
Can you please demonstrate how you intend to ensure that local knowledge is maintained if a call is dispatched from an EOC that is not in the locality and local crews are dispatched outside of the area.
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In paragraph 6.2, reference is made to the assessment of all information from national and local work. Can you provide us with evidence of the information that was used and the assessment processes that were undertaken.
In paragraph 6.3, reference is made to the fact that the Trust has agreed on the following proposal. Can you confirm at what level within the Trust this decision was made. Can you also confirm whether the people who made this decision will be responsible or have input into the final formal decision following the period of public consultation.
In paragraph 6.6 onwards, reference is made to the capacity that would be provided by the two regional EOC’s, with a back up at Leamington. Can you demonstrate to us how you intend to deploy this capacity once the decision is made. For example, would it be your intention to utilise all capacity from day one of the new provision or is it your intention to deploy a lesser number from the full capacity from day one. If it is your intention to deploy a lesser capacity, can you please demonstrate to us what that capacity will be and provide evidence to justify that decision.
Can you also provide evidence as to how you intend to run the EOC provision within Staffordshire. Currently a large number of paramedics work within the existing EOC and we will require evidence as to how these will be deployed under the new configuration. If it is your intention to employ a large number of new staff to answer the calls in the Stafford EOC, can you please provide us with evidence of the work that you have undertaken to assess the training needs and support that will be required in the initial stages to ensure that lives are not put at risk by employing a large number of new inexperienced staff.
Could you also confirm as to what implications, if any, there are for those paramedics who currently work within the EOC in Stafford and whether there will be any impact on their Agenda for Change bandings.
In paragraph 6.8 of the document, reference is made to the advantages and disadvantages of Bransford, Leamington Spa and Shrewsbury EOC’s. Can you please provide full details of all the evidence that you have used to justify the comments that you make within this paragraph. Can you particularly provide evidence of the costings that you have used and the feasibility studies you have undertaken to justify your position in respect of these EOC’s.
Can you also provide evidence of feasibility studies that have been undertaken to assess the merits of maintaining EOC provision that would enable the West Mercia locality to retain their own EOC that could potentially work in conjunction with two or more EOC’s elsewhere within the region.
Within section 8 of the document, reference is made to the financial planning and a series of figures are given to justify your current position. Can you please provide us with full details of all the costings that you have to arrive at this position.
Can you also provide us with any assessments that you have done on the potential redundancy costs for members of staff who do not move to EOC or front line duties.
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Can you also provide us with examples of the costs involved in transferring staff from Bransford and Shrewsbury to either Brierley Hill or Stafford. Can you please demonstrate how these costings will affect the proposals as laid out within your document.
In view of the timescales that are left in respect of the public consultation, I would be grateful if you could provide this information to us by Monday, 6 August 2007 at the latest. Following receipt of this information we will be consulting with our members and also members of other stakeholders involved in this process across the West Midlands region.
Can I say how disappointed I am that I have had to request this information in this way, as historically we have always enjoyed a working relationship, which has enabled us to obtain this information prior to consultation documents being made public.
I look forward to your response by Monday, 6 August 2007.
Yours sincerely
Ray Salmon
Ray Salmon
Regional Organiser