'Cool' ambulance service parody website launched

A former Shropshire ambulance worker has launched a website to expose what he feels is an appalling waste of NHS money on a research project to find out what makes a leader "cool".

Two members of staff at the West Midlands Ambulance Service have won a £10,000 bursary from the regional strategic health authority to carry out the project.

They have asked service colleagues in a questionnaire to say who in their opinion is, or was, a cool leader and a list of names to score include Richard Branson, Gordon Brown, Hitler, Winston Churchill, Martin Johnson and Fabio Capello.

Staff have also been asked how they wish to be led and what traits are important in perceiving a leader to be cool.

But Steve Jetley, of Shrewsbury, who resigned from the service and helped lead a campaign to try to save the Shropshire emergency control centre, said he was angry that money was being spent in such a way.

He has launched a website www.howcoolishitler.net to give people the chance to have their say and vote on whether or not the project is a good use of NHS resources or whether it should have been spent on patient care.

Mr Jetley said he will send the results to the chief executives of the strategic health authority and ambulance service trust, and the health minister.

Mr Jetley said: "It is an appalling waste of money. There are so many things that the NHS as a whole, and the ambulance service specifically, need to spend money on. An ambulance is operating in Shropshire with more than 300,000 miles on the clock.

"The service is also trying to make savings by asking staff to find the cheapest petrol for vehicles and yet money can be found for this sort of research."

This week the ambulance trust defended the year-long study.

It said: "The project is important in identifying the key characteristics of good leadership, to allow the organisation and the wider NHS to be more efficient and effective which, in turn, will have a direct and positive impact on improving patient care.

"The project sought to discuss different styles of leadership and the characteristics of leadership to help staff at all levels develop their career."

By Dave Morris