West Midlands Ambulance Service: Relishes call to help “blue lights go green”

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens wants ambulance manufacturers to develop more environmentally friendly vehicles to help cut air pollution. The health service accounts for almost 10 billion journeys each year – around 3.5 per cent of all road travel comprising staff and patients travel to work and appointments and medical supplies deliveries.

Ambulance service fleet general manager Tony Page said: “As a trust we have the most modern ambulance fleet in the country and have made significant changes to our fleet that has substantially reduced the level of pollution we create over the past six years. We use van conversions which are almost a tonne lighter than the modular vehicles used by other services which immediately produces savings in fuel and operating costs.

“We have worked closely with staff and the converters to improve the designs so they are easier to operate in and have then invested significantly in producing vehicles that are considerably lighter which has reduced our CO2 emissions.

“Had we not made the changes we would have created an additional 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

“We made a commitment to our staff five years ago that none of our frontline vehicles would be older than five years. As well as meaning they are a better place to work, it has allowed us to make many other improvements."

These include using new technology pioneered in the aircraft industry to reduce the weight of the ambulances by almost 10 per cent bringing real savings in fuel, tyres and vehicle spare parts.

Mr Page said a newer fleet will increase the availability of vehicles and save hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"Although the number of 999 calls has risen by 28 per cent over the last six years, we have only increased our fleet size by seven per cent due to better availability of vehicles.

“Our objectives for the next few years will be to implement the issues highlighted in the NHS Improvement Carter Report which will focus on further weight reductions from vehicle conversion, exploiting telematics, making further improvements to the saloons of the ambulances which will further improve the working environment for crews and make the patient experience better. If the vehicle manufacturers can play their part too, we can continue to make a real difference to the environment,” he added.