Town Council calls for senior management changes at East Midlands Railway
At its recent meeting Alfreton Town Council considered an update on further changes to East Midlands Railway services (EMR). The meeting heard that in little under 12 months EMR had substantially reduced services to the Town, including the removal of the Towns direct London services after almost 50 years, and more recently a 35% reduction in regional services to the Town with 48 hours’ notice with mass cancelation due to operational difficulties. The meeting was also told has EMR has now twice reneged on promises to reinstate those services from the 12th of December and the 3rd of January respectively, only advising stakeholders retrospectively and was still taking bookings for travel on these withdrawn services.
Council Deputy Leader Mary Kerry told the meeting that it is apparent that East Midlands Railway have been less than transparent in their correspondence, most notably with fare paying customers, and would seemingly have an unhealthy culture in that respect highlighted by recent suggestions of a ‘slightly reduced timetable’ which has subsequently transpired to be almost 1 in 5 of their trains scheduled to call at Alfreton.
The Town Council has previously passed a vote of no Confidence the management of East Midlands Railways, and it was unanimously resolved at their recent meeting that should be extended to call for the top level of management at EMR to consider their position to allow both the culture and service to be addressed by a new team.
The Office is closed and staff are now working from home
Following the recent government announcement staff will be working from home from Monday 13th December 2021 until further notice.
Please ring 01773 520032 and leave a message or email office@alfretontc.co.uk
Please note that staff are part-time and predominantly work 9-12.30 Tuesday to Thursday
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-covid-19/offices-factories-and-labs
Move to Plan B:
The government has announced that England will move to Plan B in response to the risks of the Omicron variant. This means:
- face coverings are required by law in some public indoor settings, such as shops, takeaways, (where there is no space for consumption of food or drink on the premise), and cinemas
- office workers who can work from home should do so
- from 6am on Wednesday 15 December, certain venues and events will be required by law to check the COVID status of customers using the NHS COVID Pass or other accepted proof
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) has this evening declared a critical incident (as at 18.00 hours, Monday 6 January 2025).
EMAS has put out more ambulance resource than ever before. However, the combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands, have led to this level of escalation.
Declaring a critical incident includes a formal ask of partner services to take immediate action to help mitigate the risk for people in our communities, including:
Rapid release of ambulances from hospital departments. We appreciate this will be challenging for hospital colleagues however, we need to ensure we have emergency ambulances available to respond to people waiting in the community where life is at threat.
From the morning, local NHS Clinical Hubs to take Category 3 calls (see additional notes) from EMAS and provide support and/or a local alternative NHS pathway for these patient. This allows EMAS to focus on responding to Category 1 (life-threatening) and Category 2 (serious) calls.
All Category 3 calls (see additional information below) from NHS 111 receive a clinical validation from DHU Healthcare (the provider of 111 services) before it is sent for an ambulance.
Like many across the NHS, EMAS colleagues have been working tirelessly to respond to patient need. All internal actions and options to mitigate risk have been exhausted; therefore, a critical incident has been called to ensure mutual aid to support delivery of emergency and urgent patient care.
The public is asked to help by using NHS services wisely and by taking regular medication to manage long-term conditions. If your illness or injury is not immediately life-threatening, please seek alternative care via a pharmacy, urgent treatment centre, or general practitioner (including out of hours services) – visit the NHS website for services near you: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/services-near-you/
Given the additional weather-related pressures being responded to by emergency services across the East Midlands, please act responsibly and do not take unnecessary risks.
Additional information:
Given the severity of the concern, senior leaders will continue to respond to the challenges faced and to ensure support for staff and volunteers at work. Therefore, media interviews will not be conducted tonight. Media requests should be sent via communications@emas.nhs.uk and will be responded to tomorrow.
This is the first time that East Midlands Ambulance Service has declared a Critical Incident.
In response to pressures in the NHS system and on ambulance services, on Tuesday 26 November 2024, EMAS escalated to Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) Level 4 – the highest level which indicates a potential for failures within the service. The service has remained at REAP Level 4 since then.
The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework describes a critical incident as: ‘any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal functions.
NHS England Ambulance Response Programme states Category 3 calls are for urgent calls such as abdominal pains, and which will include patients to be treated in their own home. The aim is to respond to these patients at least nine out of 10 times within 120 minutes.
EMAS has put out more ambulance resource than ever before. However, the combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands, have led to this level of escalation.
Declaring a critical incident includes a formal ask of partner services to take immediate action to help mitigate the risk for people in our communities, including:
Rapid release of ambulances from hospital departments. We appreciate this will be challenging for hospital colleagues however, we need to ensure we have emergency ambulances available to respond to people waiting in the community where life is at threat.
From the morning, local NHS Clinical Hubs to take Category 3 calls (see additional notes) from EMAS and provide support and/or a local alternative NHS pathway for these patient. This allows EMAS to focus on responding to Category 1 (life-threatening) and Category 2 (serious) calls.
All Category 3 calls (see additional information below) from NHS 111 receive a clinical validation from DHU Healthcare (the provider of 111 services) before it is sent for an ambulance.
Like many across the NHS, EMAS colleagues have been working tirelessly to respond to patient need. All internal actions and options to mitigate risk have been exhausted; therefore, a critical incident has been called to ensure mutual aid to support delivery of emergency and urgent patient care.
The public is asked to help by using NHS services wisely and by taking regular medication to manage long-term conditions. If your illness or injury is not immediately life-threatening, please seek alternative care via a pharmacy, urgent treatment centre, or general practitioner (including out of hours services) – visit the NHS website for services near you: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/services-near-you/
Given the additional weather-related pressures being responded to by emergency services across the East Midlands, please act responsibly and do not take unnecessary risks.
Additional information:
Given the severity of the concern, senior leaders will continue to respond to the challenges faced and to ensure support for staff and volunteers at work. Therefore, media interviews will not be conducted tonight. Media requests should be sent via communications@emas.nhs.uk and will be responded to tomorrow.
This is the first time that East Midlands Ambulance Service has declared a Critical Incident.
In response to pressures in the NHS system and on ambulance services, on Tuesday 26 November 2024, EMAS escalated to Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) Level 4 – the highest level which indicates a potential for failures within the service. The service has remained at REAP Level 4 since then.
The Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response framework describes a critical incident as: ‘any localised incident where the level of disruption results in the organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe requiring special measures and support from other agencies, to restore normal functions.
NHS England Ambulance Response Programme states Category 3 calls are for urgent calls such as abdominal pains, and which will include patients to be treated in their own home. The aim is to respond to these patients at least nine out of 10 times within 120 minutes.