Trust to develop a Make Ready Centre in Brighton

18 September 2012

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has submitted a planning application to create a purpose built Make Ready Centre in Falmer.

The Trust submitted the plan to create the centre on Woollards Field, Lewes Road, Falmer with Brighton and Hove City Council on Monday, 17 September.

If approved, the new centre will not only be a centre where ambulances are made ready for crews before every shift, it will also provide spacious and modern training and meeting facilities.

Designed to have a limited impact on the environment, the new building will feature thermal modelling and a central building management system to monitor energy consumption, recycling water for vehicle washing and rainwater harvesting for toilets.

The new centre would be the third central reporting Make Ready Centre that the Trust develops with the other two in Ashford and Paddock Wood, Kent.

SECAmb’s Programme Director for Estates, Geoff Catling, said: “These facilities will not only ensure that our clinical staff are freed up to do the job they are trained to do – treat patients, there will be the prospect of job opportunities as our Make Ready contractors look to recruit make ready operatives.”

Traditionally ambulance crews have been responsible for cleaning and restocking ambulances before and after shifts. Within the Make Ready system specialist teams of staff are employed to clean, restock and maintain vehicles.

These teams are responsible for regularly deep-cleaning and swabbing vehicles for the presence of micro-organisms including MRSA and CDiff. They restocked ambulances to a standardised specification, checking and servicing equipment on regular basis. To reduce the risk of vehicle breakdowns, on-site vehicle maintenance experts are also on-hand to undertake routine checks and maintenance.

Work is currently underway to establish which stations will report to the new facilities but it is expected that staff from Brighton, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Hove, Lewes and Newhaven (Patient Transport Service only) will relocate.

The staff will begin and end their shifts at the centre but during their shift will respond from a network of Ambulance Community Response Posts. They will be located based on patient demand but it is expected that posts will be found in towns currently served by ambulance stations. It may be possible the current ambulance stations will be converted into ambulance response posts.

Decisions regarding the closure of ambulance stations will be made on an individual basis and on whether they are in the best location to respond to patients. However, the closures of ambulance stations will only take place once a response post is operational – thus protecting and enhancing the service we provide to patients.