Sussex Ambulance Service

Sussex Ambulance Service was the ambulance service for the County of Sussex in England from 1 April 1995[1] until 1 July 2006, when it was succeeded by a South East Coast Ambulance Service also covering Surrey and Kent.[2]

The trust provided ambulance services to a population of 1.5 million people,[3] and was formed by the merger of the East and West Sussex ambulance services.[4] In 2001, plans were announced for a merger with Kent Ambulance Service, but these were shelved six months later after local resistance was encountered.[5]

A Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) began a clinical governance review of the trust in 2002.[6] Its report in 2003 criticised managerial staff at the trust for having inadequate systems to communicate with staff.[7] In 2005, it emerged that the trust’s despatch system had suffered computer failure four times over a period of a few months.[8]

The service started to use thrombolysis for suspected heart attacks in October 2003; by 2005 they had treated their 50th patient with this.[9]

The service had established a community first responder scheme by 2006.[10]

In 2000, the trust had an agreement with the Gambian Government to provide training to some African emergency service workers. Over a period of a few years, a small number of students travelled from The Gambia to Sussex to be trained to the level of ambulance technician.[11]