London Ambulance Service - Case Study Example

London Ambulance Service Unit Accidents and emergencies are inevitable. The emergency medical services are important in providing immediate care for injured persons or those with acute illnesses. There are many emergency care providers in the world. The commonly used emergency numbers are 999 or 112. In England, the National Health Service (NHS) ensures that emergency medical attention is constantly provided. The services can be provided out of the hospital or the patient can be rushed to hospital in case of fatal conditions. The objective of providing such services is to ensure those in need of urgent attention are treated or getting them to the point where they will get a more definitive care. Emergency medical care in London is a ‘merit good’. London Ambulance Service only provides it. London Ambulance Services has been in existence for a while. It has a history that dates back in the early 20th century. The rise of the LAS in the mid-20th century was characterized by many developments; petrol driven ambulances began to be used in England around 1900, which were given way by the horse drawn ambulances that were characteristic in the previous century. In 1930, the London County Council opted to take the ambulance services. Later on, the National Health service was established giving the way for the formation of London Ambulance Services. The 1952 Triple train crash at Harrow and Wealdstone killed 112 people while injuring 170. This led to need for more safety and emergency measures. Nine of the emergency service providers in London merged and formed the London Ambulance Service in 1965. Later on, the waterloo headquarters was opened up in 1973. A year later, South West Thames Regional Authority took up the control of LAS. Years later, LAS became a NHS trust in 1996. The trust has continued to grow (McGrath 2002). There are a number of roles that are played by LAS that are very vital for the community. The sole purpose of the ambulance service is to respond to emergency calls that are relayed through 999 as quickly as possible. The Service quickly responds to the call and provides an adequate intervention that ultimately results to helping an individual in a health crisis. They use all possible means to safeguard life. They have ambulances, personnel, helicopters and cycles that help hasten the process. Upon the realization of the intervention that is needed, the Services puts the hospitals on alert that there is a patient that is coming. They develop mechanisms that ensure that the right treatment priorities are made at the scene of an incidence. In addition, they do provide treatment, and care for the patients. Another role of the LAS is that of taking the serious and fatal cases to hospital. The Service has been able to handle a number of cases successfully including the Cannon street rail crash, Kings cross fire, 2005 suicide bombing and Paddington train crash among others. The government has been in support of LAS. Since it was taken up by the NHS, LAS has received support from the government in terms of financial aid and resources. Through such interventions, LAS has been able to employ up to 4500 staff members with over 70 ambulance services across London. In addition, they have five headquarters, namely; Waterloo Road, Pocock street, Loman street, Fielden House and Bow (London Ambulance Service Website 2014). The service works all the days, this means that they are always prepared for any eventualities. The leadership of the LAS is under the NHS ; it comprises of thirteen board members; the non-executive chairman, the executive chief executive, four Service’s executive directors and seven non-executive directors. The board meets after a period of two months to deliberate on the progress of the Service and chat the way forward. The area of operation of the Service is from Upminster to the east, Heathrow to the west, Enfield to the north and Purley to the south. The approximate measure of the region covered is about 620 square miles (NHS Choices 2012). The emergency services provide one of the most essential yet assumed services. Lack of information and education makes the society not to decipher the significance of the emergency services. The service can substantively be termed as a ‘merit good’ because there are limited players and the market forces are inexistent for the case of LAS. The ambulances used by LAS are outsourced from external players. To keep the provision of services assured, the Service receives some funding from the government as well as from well wishers through the LAS trust. Several complains from the people of London have been heard. In 2000, the Service received much criticism from people on grounds that their services were poor especially in timely response to emergencies. Funding difficulties have sometimes constrained the operations. On the other hand, an ever increasing demand for the services acts as an impediment to the Service’s mandate. However, there has been much effort placed on various operations of LAS. However, despite the challenges, LAS has been able to weather the storms and in 2013 was named by Care Quality Commission as one of the best 26 healthcare providers in England. LAS has been able to accumulate a number of resources such as 900 ambulances and 100 emergency vehicles such as cycles, cars and motorcycles (London Ambulance Service Website 2014). There are both positive and negative externalities that results from the LAS operations. The ‘merit good’ provided by the Service leaves both positive and negative implications. Externalities are basically the consequences of the economic activities of LAS on other parties. The positive externalities includes any undertaking that is beneficial to the society, for example, LAS provides a number of benefits to the community through provision of emergency treatment and medical care. On the other hand, the negative externalities refer to the activities, which cause undesirable effects to the society. The social cost that is implied in the negative consequences results to a private cost. LAS has negative externalities such as increased fuel consumption. Another positive externality is that despite the ever increasing demand for the service, LAS has been able to manage. The free rider problem has been one of the factors that affected the operations of LAS. Several individuals get the services but are reluctant to pay for the services. This has resulted to increased costs of running the Service. In addition, even those who have the capacity to pay for the services neglect the duty to pay. This has resulted to accumulation of expenses that are leaves the Service with no option other than to source for more funding. The input of the government cannot sufficiently take care of all the needs of the service. In 2013, the total cost of running LAS was about £299,021,000, where up to £ 211,242,000 took care of the staff payments while the rest (£87,779,000) takes care of other operational needs (London Ambulance Service Website 2014). Due to the inelasticity in supply and the increasing demand, the figures keep on changing towards larger values. In response to the needs, the LAS trust was formed to raise fund for LAS. In addition, they also rely on the volunteers who dedicate their time to serve the Service for a given period. Volunteers are mainly sought during the peak periods when the number of incidences is on rise, for example during the winter seasons (NHS Choices 2012). LAS is aligned with a public sector entity NHS, which plays a very important role in the running of the operations. The government aid that comes through NHS facilitates the running of the operations of the Service. There are implications that would result if such a service was under the private sector. A major difference between the public and the private sector is the profitability concept. If LAS was privately owned the main focus would be to make money. In this sector of the economy, individuals control the operations; hence can opt to leave business at any given point in time. The public sector is not like so; the social concern is highly considered and the economic aspect is considered on a lesser perspective. The level of services provided by private players would be much lower than that provided by the public sector. Firms would not be able to adequately charge for the services hence there could arise issues due to the limited profitability. The chances of quitting the business would be high. On the other hand aspects such as retrenchment and maximization of resources as well as prioritizing operations would affect the provision of emergency services. Therefore, the idea of privatization of LAS is not a good one. In conclusion, LAS has played a pivotal role in provision of quality emergency services to a number of people across London. The Service has faced ups and downs but it remains to be a force to reckon with. It has received its funding from the government, donors as well as through its trust. This has greatly facilitated operations. Being a ‘merit good’ presents a great opportunity. It takes care of the emergency needs of the people, which presents a number of positive externalities. Privatization of the agency would result to a deterioration of service delivery due to the underlying need to maximize profits. References Clark, L. & Saran, C (2006), "Downtime hits ambulance service", Computer Weekly, , pp. 5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/business/docview/237018288/6F458B3EF5D64853PQ/5?accountid=45049 London Ambulance Service Website (2014), London Ambulance service. Retrieved from http://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/ McGrath, K (2002), "The Golden Circle: A way of arguing and acting about technology in the London Ambulance Service",European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 251-266. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/business/docview/218783766/6F458B3EF5D64853PQ/1?accountid=45049 NHS Choices (2012), London Ambulance Service NHS trust. Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/Services/Trusts/Overview/DefaultView.aspx?id=29236 Read More