George Tyndale: West Midlands Ambulance renaming is a farce

Apr 3 2011 by George Tyndale, Sunday Mercury

ONLY PR executives in the public sector could find the time to fret about the name of their organisation.

West Midlands Ambulance bosses think their life-saving and body-ferrying organisation needs a revamped moniker to more accurately reflect its work among “service users” and “stakeholders.”

The front-runner is the snappy-sounding Midlands Emergency Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

So as blood spurts from a severed artery and the 999 operators asks “Which service?” all you have to say, in between compressions, is: “Midlands Emergency Healthcare NHS Foundations Trust, please.

“And make it quick.”

The public is being asked to take part in this exciting naming initiative in which the options are:

(a) not bother doing anything (because the existing name is fine and people tend to know that something called an “ambulance service” is indeed an “ambulance service”);

(b) drop the word “West” and be reborn as the “Midlands Ambulance Service”;

(c) opt for the madcap “Midlands Emergency Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.”

And people still wonder why there’s such scope for public sector cuts.

They want suggestions. Why not tell them to get on with the job they’re paid to do?