Changes on cards for Herefordshire services

3:00pm Monday 6th October 2008

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BIG changes may be ahead for two of Herefordshire’s emergency services.

Plans are in the pipeline to merge fire services, while paramedics might get to trial a new way of working with hospital emergency centres.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service is actively exploring a merger with its counterpart in Warwickshire to form an all-new brigade.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority has backed a “detailed look” at what the merger would mean, having heard that both brigades were well suited to closer working.

Paul Hayden, Chief Fire Officer for Hereford and Worcester, said the merger was about making the service more efficient over time and not closing stations or cuts to the front line.

Brigadier Peter Jones, chairman of Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority, said the results of the evaluation would be examined in December.

Paramedics, meanwhile, may soon be testing a new piece of kit which lets them send “real time” patient information such as heart rates and blood pressure to receiving hospitals.

This project should roll out across the West Midlands Ambulance Service area over the next 12 months.