The next boss of the London Ambulance Service must address the “woeful legacy” of its departing chief executive, a Tory MP said today.
Nick de Bois, who is seen by colleagues as a potential candidate for London mayor, said increasing the number of frontline staff was a priority for the successor to Ann Radmore, who will quit her post on Friday.
The Enfield North MP discovered via a Parliamentary written answer that the number of frontline staff has fallen from 2,956 in 2010/11 to 2,647 as of last month - a drop of 309.
He told the Standard: “Whatever the reason the CEO has quit there is now an opportunity for a new person to re-build the relationship between hard pressed front line staff and management.
“The relationship is not good which is in part why the service has up to 500 unfilled vacancies. That’s a woeful legacy she leaves behind which needs fixing.”
Ms Radmore will be replaced on an interim basis by LAS medical director Dr Fionna Moore. She announced her shock departure yesterday in the wake of the LAS becoming the worst ambulance service in the country at responding to 999 calls.
Dr Onkar Sahota, Labour chairman of the London Assembly health committee, said: “It is clear the Government’s failure to properly resource the ambulance service handed Ann Radmore an impossible task running an overstretched, underfunded ambulance service in the midst of an A&E winter crisis.”
