Alfreton Train Station
As part of Alfreton Town Councils campaign to improve facilities and access at the Town’s station, which has been ongoing for more than 25 years, representatives from East Midlands Trains and the Derbyshire Law Centre attended a recent Town Council meeting.
The meeting heard about recent works at the station including security and toilet upgrades and details of an extension to the current Franchise ahead of a formal announcement of a new East Midlands Railway Franchise, which is now expected in April. A variety of topics were raised by Councillors, with the discussions dominated by car parking and access challenges. Although the meeting was constructive, members were left frustrated with the limited information about the long-delayed access improvement project, where it is expected that clearer information on funding in Network Rails Control Period 6 would be available in April. It was also noted that the ongoing short extensions of the current Franchise was limiting opportunity to compete more substantial works to the car park where it was agreed a full review was required by the new Franchisee.
An update on a Discrimination claim, which had been initiated by the Town Council was provided by the Derbyshire Law Centre, who confirmed the final stages of the claim where being concluded ahead of the case being heard in court.
Finally, members expressed concern that fares to London via Chesterfield were more expensive than via Nottingham, which felt like a double whammy for less able passengers that had to travel that route due to the access restrictions to south bound services.
The meeting resolved to write to the Transport Minister and the local MP’s with constituents likely to use Alfreton Station, pressing for prioritisation of the access work. A further meeting is to be held with East Midlands Trains once the new Franchise has been awarded and funding for Control Period 6 confirmed. East Midlands Trains agreed to undertake urgent investigate concerns with the structure of the current bridge, clarity of disabled parking provision and visibility of the ticket machine in direct sunlight.
Mayor 2018/2019
The Mayor for 2018/2019 Municipal Year is Councillor Mary Kerry, if you would like Mary to attend any events please get in touch.
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.