NORTH West Ambulance Service NHS Trust has launched the search for a new chief executive.

Current chief exec Derek Cartwright will be retiring in June and the position is now open for applications.

The successful candidate will be paid between £141,000 – £149,000 per year.

Mr Cartwright announced his pending retirement in March after more than 30 years in the ambulance service.

NWAS is one of the largest ambulance services in the country employing more than 6,000 staff and serving a population of 7 million which spans Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside.

North West Ambulance Service chairman Wyn Dignan said: “In August 2017, along with the other ambulance services in the UK, the new Ambulance Response Programme (ARP) was introduced.

“ARP was created to ensure the sickest patients receive the fastest response. This has proved very challenging and has affected our performance, however robust action plans are in place and improvements are being made.

“We are also developing and changing our service delivery model to improve care for patients in response to increasing demand, public expectation and changes to the wider healthcare system.

“During 2017/18 the trust achieved all of the financial duties and this indicates the strength of our financial management arrangements and will stand the whole organisation in good stead as we face an increasingly challenging financial climate.

“In summer 2016 we underwent a CQC inspection and the overall rating was one of ‘requires improvement’ and the areas of concern related to procedure, guidelines and training.

“The CQC noted some areas of outstanding practice.

“The CQC report is being used to inform an improvement plan that is centred on an ethos of continuous improvement, innovation and transformation.”

Before taking on the chief executive role, Mr Cartwright’s  career saw him working in many areas of the organisation, from his first position in the patient transport service in 1986, to joining the emergency service in 1988 as one of Greater Manchester’s first cohort of paramedics, and then moving into the operational control centre as a shift control manager.