Blackpool's new ambulance station on schedule ahead of shake up of service

Construction began earlier this year on the site on Waterloo Road in South Shore following demolition of the old station which was built in 1980.

A report by the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) to a meeting of Blackpool Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee says the building work is on schedule.

Once the new station is fully operational the four other ambulance bases on the Fylde coast will be closed to make way for a new ‘hub and spoke’ structure, which NWAS says will modernise the service.

The report says: “The new ‘hub’ station for Fylde is taking shape with work on schedule to finish and be fully operational by the end of January next year.

“The newly developed site at Blackpool will provide staff with a hugely improved base with lockers and deep cleaning, parking and training facilities.

“Its design is incorporating a better infection control environment and will enable us to install a ‘make ready’ facility.

“At present staff, at the start of their shift, stock check vehicles but this new service will mean that a specialist team will do this work, so an ambulance crew can report to the station and immediately become available to respond to patients.

“Once the Blackpool site is ready and operational, as we have briefed previously, we will then begin a phased closure of the remaining stations in Fylde – Fleetwood, Lytham, Wesham and Thornton, and despatch ambulances from Blackpool to start their shifts at carefully identified ‘spoke’ locations in the vicinity of the old sites.

“Work is ongoing to identify those sites and the stations will not close until a spoke site is fully operational.”

‘Spoke’ sites could include health centres, fire stations and police stations. The model has already been adopted in other parts of the region after it was found ambulances are rarely at their station when they are despatched on a call.

During construction of the new station, paramedics have been operating out of a temporary base on the site of the former Devonshire Road Hospital in North Shore.

The changes to services were first revealed in February 2021 by NWAS.