Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the performance of the ambulance service in Shropshire and (b) assess the feasibility of providing an ambulance service for that county rather than the regional ambulance service run from Birmingham.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service is working with community partners to improve ambulance performance in Shropshire. This includes reducing unnecessary conveyances through alternative clinical treatments to increase ambulance capacity; hospital liaison managers improving patient flow through accident and emergency (A&E) and reduce ambulance queues; and a new same day emergency centre supporting A&E capacity to reduce ambulance handover times. In addition, a £9.3 million upgrade of the emergency department at the Royal Shrewsbury will deliver additional capacity and help improve urgent and emergency care services locally.

The configuration of the provision of local ambulance services is for local National Health Service commissioners to consider in the best interests of the local population.