Paramedics slam order to clean their ambulances which 'will delay them going to next 999 call'

Paramedics are railing against an order from emergency service chiefs to end the trust's ambulance cleaning contract. The frontline workers say the decision will see them delayed from going to their next 999 call because they have to stop and clean the vehicles themselves after dropping a patient off at hospital.

The order, set out in a letter from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) bosses to staff - leaked to the Manchester Evening News - will bring an end to a cleaning provision in place since the beginning of the pandemic. The trust says that the contract with the external cleaning company is 'unaffordable', costing more than '£3 million per year', reads the letter.

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The contracted cleaning company was brought in 'at the height of the pandemic to increase crew availability and improve cleanliness', according to NWAS. An ambulance would come to hospital and, while paramedics took their patient inside the hospital and completed necessary paperwork, cleaning staff stationed outside A&E would scrub down the ambulance.

Paramedics say the service not only ensured that their potentially Covid-19 contaminated vehicles were thoroughly safe both for themselves and their next patient, but saved them vital minutes, allowing them to get back out on the road to their next emergency quicker.

The move to end the cleaning provision has sparked fury within NWAS, with paramedics also telling the M.E.N. they are concerned that:

From April 1, the cleaning provision, provided by JPR Solutions Ltd, will be brought to an end, says NWAS. The 'difficult decision' has been made as