GREAT Western Ambulance Service looks set to merge with another organisation.
The move comes as a new Government paper, the Health and Social Care Bill 2011, ruled that all NHS trusts such as GWAS must become an NHS foundation trusts by April 2014.
However to achieve the status GWAS needs to demonstrate strong financial and operational performance. Interim GWAS chief executive Martin Flaherty said that while the trust was now hitting those targets, it did not have a good enough track record to satisfy requirements for foundation status and so is seeking another NHS foundation trust to merge with.
Based in Chippenham, GWAS provides emergency care and patient transport services across Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, including the Cotswolds.
GWAS is the smallest of the 11 independent ambulance services in England and would have to show the same level of financial and operational governance as its larger counterparts.
Mr Flaherty, who leaves in September, said he hoped the merger process would be completed by October next year.
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