London Ambulance Service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

London Ambulance Service - Essay Example There are seventy ambulances, which serves the entire region of London. The trust is under the jurisdiction of the NHS. The NHS board meets after a period of two months to deliberate on the way forward for the trust. The board consists of a non-executive chairperson, five executive directors, and seven non-executive directors making thirteen board members. The LAS has a long history that dates way back in the 1960’s. The trust has weathered hard times to become one of the most reputable ambulance services in the world. Its formation was facilitated by the 1946 National Health services Act, which provided that ambulances were to be availed to any individual that required their services. Nine ambulance services merged in London and formed the LAS in 1965. Adjustments were made by the NHS, which resulted to the moving of LAS from the Local Government to South West Thames Regional Health Authority. It would later become a NHS trust in 1996 when the authority of South West Thames Regional Health Authority was eliminated (London Ambulance Service 2014). The operations of LAS cover a distance of up to 620 square miles. The region of operation ranges from Enfield to the north to Purley to the south while on the western is Heathrow and Upminster to the east. Seventy ambulance stations are spread across the entire region with four main headquarters at Waterloo road, Pocock Street, Loman street, Fielden House, and Bow. The trust provides an array of medical emergencies, which includes; provision of emergency responses, response to less serious calls, providing a clean environment for patient service, they do take patients for hospital appointments, they deal with major incidences, they help in finding hospital beds while making the experience of the patient to count. The services provided by London Ambulance Services stands out as a merit good. A merit good is one that the market underprovides and the forces therein do not affect the