The North West Ambulance Service are intending to remove wheelchairs off Emergency Ambulances, citing that it is because they are not on the National Specification. 

These wheelchairs are the only safe method of transporting patients from their property to the ambulance. The Carry Chairs that ambulances carry are not suitable for wheeling patients over any distance. They are unsafe and should only be used to carry patients up and down stairs/steps.

Since their introduction, the wheelchairs have resulted in a considerable decrease in injuries to ambulance staff. Ambulance staff are totally opposed to their removal.

NWAS must reconsider the decision to remove them as it will result in putting staff at a higher risk of injury. NWAS must put the health and safety of ambulance staff first, regardless of what decisions have been made nationally.

We call on NWAS to listen to the clinicians who use this vital piece of equipment and to leave them on the ambulances used in the North West of England.