WITHAM MP Priti Patel has welcomed the resignation of East of England ambulance boss Maria Ball.
The Conservative politician had called for her to stand down in the wake of a Care Quality Commission report – which criticised response times to emergencies.
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust was the first in the country to fail a CQC assessment and MPs and patient groups had demanded urgent action.
Vice chairman Paul Remington will lead the organisation with interim CEO Andrew Morgan until a new chairman of the trust is appointed.
Ms Patel, who had asked the Secretary of State for Health if ambulance trust board members could be sacked, said patients in Essex had been let down by a poor service.
"The decision by Maria Ball is long overdue and I hope that a change of leadership at a board level will bring in the reforms needed to improve performance and help restore confidence," she said.
"We should remember that patients and their families have been badly let down by the ambulance service and suffered as a result of the failures presided over by Ms Ball."
She added: "An NHS board should be carrying out vital work holding managers to account, addressing problems and providing strategic leadership.
"All board members on the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust should now consider what has happened and whether they are suitable to continue in post.
"Patients need to be confident that the ambulance service is being led by a strong board, and not a bunch of individuals who are prepared to take the money that comes with the role but accept no responsibility when things go wrong."
Last week, the Chronicle revealed that more patients in Essex waited longer for an ambulance that in other county in the region.
In 2012, for example, 104 people in the county waited over three hours for an ambulance – more than in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk combined. Similarly, 512 Essex patients waited for more than two hours, compared with just 284 in the other five counties.
Vice chairman Paul Remington said: "Maria has spent many years leading the ambulance service and I would like to thank her for her dedication and commitment through what have been challenging times. She oversaw the formation of this trust, bringing together three disparate organisations into one service, and its subsequent development.
"We now must concentrate on looking forward and focusing solely on how we improve our service to patients and better support our staff."
Mr Remington said the trust would be recruiting more frontline staff.
