Air ambulance base may move south in privatisation plan

The service’s air desk operations centre was moved from Aberdeen to Tayside in February last year after Scotland’s eight ambulance operations rooms were reduced to three emergency medical dispatch centres in Edinburgh, Inverness and Paisley.

The Scottish National Party claimed yesterday that the 17 staff in Dundee had already been told that their jobs will be lost as part of a move to switch the air desk operation to the control of a private company, Gama Aviation, which is based at Farnborough in the south of England - an allegation that was immediately refuted by the service.

Gama Aviation, however, has been named as the preferred bidder for the new contract to run Scotland's air ambulance service, due to begin in 2006.

Shona Robison, the SNP MSP for Dundee East and party’s spokeswoman on health, said she had written to Andy Kerr, the new health minister, demanding that the Scottish Executive intervene over the centre’s future.

She said: "These proposals are a retrograde step for patient care and safety. The dedicated air desk based in Dundee has some of the most experienced operations staff in the Scottish Ambulance Service, with over 184 years of experience between them.

"They have detailed knowledge of the geography of Scotland and have built up a close working relationship with clinicians. This will be lost to a private company with no track record or experience."

She went on: "Furthermore, the emergency medical dispatch centre in Edinburgh will be expected to take the calls and pass them on to Farnborough, yet they are completely overstretched as it is, with the air desk staff in Dundee taking more than 1,000 overspill calls from them last month alone. Scotland needs a dedicated air desk to manage air ambulance calls."

Ms Robison claimed: "The Scottish Ambulance Service already seems to have made up its mind.

"I would urge the health minister to make it clear to the Scottish Ambulance Service that he wants to have a dedicated air desk in Scotland. He must tell the Scottish Ambulance Service to think again on these proposals."

The air ambulance service insisted no final decision had been taken on the future centre for the air desk operations. The new contract is due to be awarded next January.

A spokesman said: "Until the consultation process has been completed, no decision will be taken on whether the preferred-bidder option proceeds.

"Staff have been advised of the implications of such a decision, however, and that is that the Dundee centre would no longer be there and they would be moved to another role within the ambulance service at the same grade."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: "We expect that, before any decisions are made, the implications will be reviewed carefully to ensure that ambulance services continue to be fully responsive to patients’ needs."