CUMBRIA’S ambulance service is joining forces with its neighbours to find ways of saving money and improving efficiency.

The North West Ambulance Service and the trusts in the north east and Yorkshire have launched the Northern Ambulance Alliance (NAA).

The partnership will see the three organisations looking to save money and become more efficient through joint procurements, for instance buying vehicles.

There could also be savings through major changes to IT, accessing specialist expertise and sharing best practice between the three bodies.

They state it is not a merger but is an attempt to standardise care, identify savings, and lead to benefits that individual trusts would be unlikely to achieve on their own.

Trust boundaries will not change and frontline staff will not be asked to work in other areas of the alliance.

But the three organisations say that the new alliance could lead in the future to joint appointments or shared working for new roles and replacements.

The alliance may also be able to tap into new funding streams currently unavailable to individual trusts.

Ambulance services are already seeing the benefits of collaborating more closely with police and fire rescue services.

Derek Cartwright, chief executive of North West Ambulance Service, added: “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: “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.”

The North West Ambulance Service employs over 5,100 across the region, including Cumbria, and operates almost 1,000 vehicles.