Control centre shock.

Byline: By NAOMI CORRIGAN

TEESSIDE'S ambulance control room looks set to close under shock plans announced today.

Consultations are under way over a report proposing the closure of the Middlesbrough-based centre, which employs 25 members of staff.

The centre currently operates with the Newcastle control room as a single "virtual contact centre" with computer systems, command and control systems linked via satellite.

But the report recommends there be two independent contact centres - both located in Tyneside - resulting in the loss of the Middlesbrough facility.

The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust says this would "improve resilience" in the event of a natural disaster, technical failure or terrorist attack at either of the centres as they would then be operating independently of each other.

But trade union bosses say if Middlesbrough staff members were unwilling to relocate, knowledge and expertise of Teesside would be lost at the contact centres.

Branch secretary of UNISON, Joel Byers said: "No doubt they will need the staff fromthe Tees centre tomove to the Newcastle centre but it is a long way to travel. You have to consider things like childcare and the fact they would have an extra two hours of travelling each shift.

"If those Teesside staff weren't prepared to do that then we would lose that local knowledge of the Tees area at the Newcastle contact centres.

"A lot of the Teesside staff have probably been at the control room for a good few years and I would expect protection to be put in place for these members of staff. They have done a fantastic service and their loyalty should be recognised."

NEAS currently has the use of the NHS Direct call centre facility in Longbenton, Newcastle, as a back-up. In the event of a failure in the current linked contact centre, staff would be transferred to Long bent on which would then be brought on line.

Colin Cessford, director of strategy and clinical standards at NEAS NHS Trust, said: "This has been deemed a safe system for a number of years, but now we need to tighten up our resilience.

"This means having two separate centres which do not share the same utilities and supplies, but are still close enough that in the event of the worst case scenario, we can quickly move our staff from one site to the other without a loss of service.

"The contact centre in Middlesbrough was set up at a time when there was a smaller, local ambulance service responsible for that area.

There are now 11 regional ambulance trusts in England and we want to ensure that we are set up to offer the best service we can for everyone in the North-east.

"This means being able to move our staff quickly and safely from one site to another in the event of an incident. It also means being able to maintain our core services after an incident without losing staff due to long commutes to work."

He added the changes would bear no impact on the location of ambulance stations or the ambulance crews who respond to calls.

And a spokeswoman for the service said it was not a cost-cutting exercise, no jobs will go and there would be other operational jobs on Teesside for staff to consider if they were unable to relocate.

The recommendations were made in reports commissioned after the July 2006 merger of the former North East Ambulance Service and Tees area of Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

In August 2006, a spokesman for the trust told the Gazette there were no current plans to close the control room.

CAPTION(S):

UNDER THREAT: The present Ambulance control based at Ladgate Lane, Middlesbrough,