Yorkshire Ambulance Service - Call For Improvement

Call For Improvement

On 26 March 2010 the Care Quality Commission announced that the Yorkshire Ambulance Service was consistently failing to meet national response time targets.

On 23 June 2010, the BBC announced that Yorkshire Ambulance Service call response was 'England's Worst'. The Service was given until 31 October 2010 to meet targets adequately, which it stated it was doing, however, it was once again awarded "England's Worst" status in June 2011.

The current Chief Executive, David Whiting, joined the service on 1 February 2011. He is the third Chief Executive for the Trust in five years. He was previously Chief Executive of Great Western Ambulance Service between April 2009 and January 2011 and left that service as Unison balloted its members for strike action following changes to terms and conditions for staff - most notably pay and rota arrangements. David is a qualified paramedic and started his career as a cadet with South Yorkshire Ambulance 28 years ago.

The former Chief Executives were Jayne Barnes OBE (1 July 2006-14 January 2008) and Martyn Pritchard (15 January 2008-June 2010. Jayne emigrated to Australia to take up the post of Assistant Commissioner of Queensland Ambulance Service (South East region), and Martyn went to work at the Strategic Health Authority.

Rod Barnes is expected to take up the post of Finance Director in September 2011. Rod is currently the Finance Director at Great Western Ambulance Service.

On 27 July 2010 David Forster, policy and strategy Director, was dismissed for saying on Facebook that: "The NHS has no shame in employing too many who are lazy, unproductive, obstinate, militant, aggressive at every turn and who couldn't secure a job anywhere outside the bloated public sector where mediocrity is shielded by weak and unprincipled HR policies."