§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase resources to rural ambulance services in(a) Cumbria and (b) elsewhere. [107486]
§ Ms StuartSince 1997, an extra £15 million has been included in the general allocation to health authorities to support implementation of the new ambulance service targets across England; those allocations are weighted to take account of rurality. Furthermore, we have carried out research recently to support ambulance services in delivering the national targets in both urban and rural areas such as Cumbria.
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to improve the(a) effectiveness and (b) response times for ambulance services in sparsely populated rural counties. [107490]
§ Ms StuartWe recognise the practical constraints on ambulance services that have to cope with extremes of geography. In emergency situations the effectiveness of ambulance services is largely dependent on speed of response and the clinical training of their crews. The new response time targets will benefit rural areas as they are based on clinical need rather than geography. However rural services will need to develop alternative approaches to achieving the response times for people with immediately life-threatening conditions including paramedics using fast response vehicles, co-responder programmes (using the fire service and police) and community first responder schemes (local trained volunteers). We have commissioned research on the cost effectiveness of these alternative responses to help local health economies, including those in rural areas, plan specific service improvements.