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Ambulance call centre in Wokingham will close

By Laura Herbert
May 09, 2012

Wokingham's ambulance call centre will close this summer in a move to cut costs.

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) NHS Foundation Trust yesterday confirmed the centre in Finchampstead Road, along with its IT teams, will relocate to its headquarters in Bicester from July.

A spokesman for the Trust said: "This action will improve resilience and enhance our call taking and clinical assessment capability, enabling us to provide the best possible care for our patients into the future.

Axe looms again for Wokingham's ambulance base

"There is a general move across England’s ambulance services to fewer, fit for purpose EOCs. Like all public sector organisations SCAS needs to make financial efficiencies whilst protecting front line services and patient care."

A GP out of hours service will continue to operate from the office for the time being.

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Why has SCAS got its HQ in Bicester surely it should be in the middle of its region. It has been said in the past that local knowlegde is vital with regards to emgerency services being able to get to the destination on time, I do not understand why this office is therefore closing. Yes, we must protect frontline services, but we must also hold the Government to account - elected on no cuts to the NHS, well this is a cut, you can not cut a service to the bone and then cut it some more, something will break.

WasteAccountant.me, Reading/Wokingham
09/05/2012 at 18:21

So funding has been cut and the service is being diminished. Why not say that, rather than dressing this up as a win? The spokesman must have political ambitions. Does no-one speak the plain truth these days?