Work due to start on new ambulance base

Work on a new ambulance hub for more than 200 staff is due to start in the Black Country this week.

The base at Electrium Point in Willenhall is part of a multi-million pound shake-up of West Midlands Ambulance Service.

The hub in Ashmore Lake Way, which will also incorporate an ambulance station, will be where vehicles and rapid response vehicles are serviced, repaired, cleaned and stored.

Work is due to get started tomorrow with a sod-cutting ceremony to mark the beginning of the scheme.

A second hub which was created after the refurbishment of buildings at the existing ambulance station in Burton Road, Dudley, is already operating.

It is part of a shake-up which sees community ambulance stations replace traditional buildings.

Ambulance crews can collect their vehicles from the hub at the start of their shift, then go to the smaller community ambulance stations across the Black Country to respond to 999 calls.

There were 13 traditional ambulance stations in the Black Country. Most of these stations will be sold and replaced by more than double the number of smaller community bases which are leased rather than owned.

Richard Topping, the ambulance service's general manager for the Black Country, said: "The hub will operate 24/7 unlike our previous workshops. A new dedicated team of ambulance fleet assistants will clean, stock, service and maintain our fleet. It will lead to a big reduction in the downtime of the fleet and therefore of our ambulance crews.

"It means more of them will be on the road, available to respond to 999 calls for longer, effectively increasing our ambulance provision in the Black Country."

Round-the-clock teams of community paramedics will be operating in Stourbridge, Halesowen, West Bromwich, Oldbury, Aldridge, Bloxwich, the Delves area of Walsall, Codsall, Bushbury, Tettenhall and Wombourne.