NORTH West Ambulance Service has combined with two others to create an alliance.

Bosses have joined with the North East and Yorkshire services to create the group for the north of England but have said the launch of the Northern Ambulance Alliance (NAA) ‘is not a merger of organisations’.

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Instead, they have said the move would ‘improve efficiency and facilitate greater collaboration’.

Derek Cartwright, chief executive of North West Ambulance Service, said: “The NAA will work within the existing structure of organisations and their legal frameworks.

“The boards of all three trusts will still have responsibility for their individual service but will also consider the work and objectives of the NAA when making decisions.”

Yvonne Ormston, chief executive of North East Ambulance Service, said: “Sharing borders as we do, the three ambulance trusts have always worked together for the benefit of patients and the communities we respectively serve.

“The NAA will allow us to work even closer as clinicians, sharing best practice and innovation at a scale that has not previously been possible.”

A statement issued by the NAA said that move was an attempt by all three organisations to work closer together.

The move is an attempt to procure exercises, facilitate major changes to IT, access specialist expertise and learn from each other.

The statement said that the aim of the NAA will be to improve quality and service delivery for all patients in the North of England.

Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group, said: “When I heard, my first reaction was one of shock but I am hoping that this will mean that there will be a dramatic improvement.

“Whilst I have reservations, I am hopeful that this will be a positive move."

“Although they are being very cagey about it, I think that this will lead to an amalgamation.

“No matter what they are telling staff and patients, I believe this is the most sensible way forward.

“Most ambulance services are failing the patients and their targets on an almost monthly basis.

“Individually, they cannot cope, so hopefully this will make them a force to be reckoned with.”