Ambulance works say overtime cuts is threatening lives

They claim Welsh Ambulance Service staff have been overstretched and stations left empty since the cuts.

It comes a day after acting chief executive Roger Thayne retired after two months in the job. His replacement, Anton Van Dellen, was named on Friday.

Welsh Health Minister Brian Gibbons said the service had to modernise to become "world class".

Unions said overtime reductions introduced during Mr Thayne's period in charge had led to a deterioration in relations between staff and the trust, and an official dispute is now being considered.

If we don't have enough resources out there to answer those calls there is a great possibility lives will be put at risk Keith Menzies

Earlier this week the unions GMB, T&G and Unison issued an emergency bulletin claiming that relations with management had fallen alarmingly, and threatening an official dispute.

"We are certainly under pressure both to meet the financial balance books and also to meet the response times," said Keith Menzies of the GMB.

"The problem is that he (Mr Thayne) tried to balance the books and that meant reducing the overtime, but when you reduce the amount of overtime, you leave large holes in the staffing levels.

"It's come as a surprise that he has left so many stations and staffing levels at such a low level.

"If we don't have enough resources out there to answer those calls there is a great possibility lives will be put at risk.

Roger Thayne resigned just two months after taking up the post

"We do need a lot of finance injected into the ambulance service," he added.

The assembly government has not commented on the criticism, but on Thursday, Health Minister Brian Gibbons said the modernisation process was a matter for the trust and its staff.

"Ambulance services play a major role in the delivery of health services in Wales, with our population being in both urban and rural communities," said Dr Gibbons.

"We have made it clear to the trust that it is crucial that the ambulance service modernises in line with the requirements of our policy, Designed for Life, to create a world-class ambulance service for Wales in the 21st Century."

Mr Thayne, 62, announced his resignation on Thursday as figures showed ambulance emergency response times in Wales were failing to meet targets.

Mr Thayne said the decision was 100% his own and had nothing to do with the figures for ambulance response times.

Statistics released by the assembly government up to the end of March showed the percentage of responses to emergency calls within 21 minutes was at 81.4%, against a target of 95%.

Mr Thayne joined the Welsh Ambulance Service after resigning from Staffordshire Ambulance Service in March.

His replacement as interim chief executive was announced on Friday as Anton Van Dellen.