Creaking ambulance fleet puts patients in danger

Many have covered more than 250,000 miles on the region's roads and the officials are now pointing to cases where doors have even fallen off because vehicles are so old – and the problems are said to be worst in North Yorkshire.

GMB officials have now asked Yorkshire Ambulance Service bosses to review a policy under which chassis of A&E ambulances are leased for six years while other parts of the vehicles are leased for 12.

Jon Smith, GMB regional officer for drivers and paramedics, said "Many of the ambulances used are now noisy, uncomfortable and can be dangerous with incidents of doors falling off whilst on the road, heaters commonly failing and ill-fitting doors letting in water and road spray.

"Many of the chassis are worn out and unreliable with 250,000 miles being a low mileage with many in excess of this.

"Vehicles with faults have been, and are being moved out of service for repair but are put back into service at other stations before the repairs are carried out with the staff on these stations being unaware of the faults.

"This has meant that vehicles en route to emergencies have failed and have had to have a second vehicle sent to carry out the detail thus causing a delay and potential fatal risk to the patient. This has also created a potential risk to the safety of the crew, the patient on board and the public in general."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service operates about 1,400 vehicles, ranging from ambulances, high performance response cars, various types of patient transport vehicles and motorcycles. The fleet on average covers 12 million miles each year.

A survey by the Yorkshire Post three years ago found one ambulance based in Thirsk, used to ferry non-emergency patients to hospital, had clocked up 360,000 miles – the equivalent of 14 times round the world.

A Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokeswoman said GMB staff represented eight per cent of its workforce and the union was not recognised in bargaining.

"Patients are our highest priority and we are committed to providing them with high quality clinical care and safe transport," she added.

"We would like to reassure the public that we have comprehensive vehicle maintenance and vehicle replacement programmes in place and during the last year the Trust has spent over 5.5m on modernising its fleet."