West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust was formed on 1st July 2006 by the amalgamation of the former West Midlands Ambulance Service, Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance and Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service. Staffordshire Ambulance Service joined in October 2007.
West Midlands Ambulance Service serves a population of about 5.4 million who live in Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Coventry, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the Birmingham and Black Country conurbation.
Our main role is to respond to emergency 999 calls, getting medical help to patients who have serious or life threatening injuries or illnesses as quickly as possible. In addition we provide a Patient Transport Service which delivers pre-arranged transportation for patients to and from their hospital appointments and a Single point of Access telephone service to support the provision of unscheduled care and coordinate Safeguarding referrals.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service has been recognised as consistently being one of the highest performing regional Trusts in the country and was named as Ambulance Service of the year for 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the Ambulance Service Institute and was the top rated Trust in 2010 in the Healthcare 100 Awards.
The Trust has over 4000 members of staff. We are also supported by 800 Community First Responders who provide a first response in mainly rural communities and almost 100 volunteer car drivers who help transport non urgent patients to clinics.
We operate from over 60 ambulance stations throughout the West Midlands and have 850 vehicles in our fleet. The area is also served by 4 air ambulances.
West Midlands Ambulance Service is planning to become a Foundation Trust. This means that everyone living in the West Midlands Region can have a say in how the Service develops. Foundation Trusts are still part of the NHS and they continue to provide free care to everyone. For more information, please contact us by e-mail at foundationtrust@wmas.nhs.uk
