West Midlands Ambulance Service
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The West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in Herefordshire, Shropshire,Staffordshire, Telford and Wrekin, Warwickshire, West Midlands, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands region. The trust was formed on July 1, 2006, following the merger of the Hereford & Worcester, Coventry & Warwickshire, WMAS and Shropshire services. On October 1st 2007, the service merged with Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust. WMAS is the 2nd largest and busiest ambulance service in the UK.
It is one of 12 Ambulance Trusts providing England with Emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, and under the Patient's charter, every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency.
There are three air ambulance helicopters covering the 8,000 sq miles of the Midlands region - together they make up the County Air Ambulance service. In addition to the County Air Ambulance, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) covers Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. The air ambulance services are based at RAF Cosford (nr Wolverhampton), Strensham Services, East Midlands airport and Coventry airport (WNAA).
On 28 November 2007, the Trust agreed to go ahead with proposals for the reconfiguration of its Emergency Operations Centres.
The trust has over 400 vehicles, these including patient transport services vehicles, rapid response vehicles, motorcycle response units, and of course ambulance crews.
WMAS is one of the highest performing ambulance services in England and was one of only two to exceed all of its national performance targets in 2006-07.
WMAS is based at Millennium Point, Brierly Hill ( near the merry hill shopping center )
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Ambulance Services in the United KingdomImage:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg |
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England:
East Midlands | East of England | Great Western | Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust | London | North East | North West | South Central | South East Coast | South Western | West Midlands | Yorkshire |
