WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has spoken out publicly against the management style of the Mersey Regional Ambulance Service NHS Trust boss.

Mrs Jones spoke in the House of Commons about the trust's 'serious management problems', laying the blame squarely at the door of chief executive Janet Davies.

She said that British Telecom had raised concerns on a number of occasions after having difficulties connecting 999 calls to the control centre, and she argues that the situation is getting worse, not better.

During the first weekend of November, a BT worker asked whether it would be possible to put a call through to a neighbouring trust after waiting for an answer from control room staff for 11 minutes, but the request was denied.

Mrs Jones said: "I am told that there were recently only five staff on duty in the control room instead of 15.

"The number later rose to seven or eight.

"In response, the chief executive was quoted in one of our local newspapers as saying that the trust could not magic people up to answer calls.

"Of course not, but one would expect any trust that had such a problem would be looking at the causes of absence and doing something to tackle it.

"There is no evidence that that is taking place."

The MP argued that the service is not under funded for emergency care, and that the front line staff are not at fault.

Instead, she attacked Ms Davies' management style, arguing that she is 'unable to respond to criticism'.

She also highlighted one case when a member of staff was moved from his post after he questioned a new procedure.

Jane Griffiths, acting chairman of Mersey Regional Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said that at a meeting of the board last week, the non-executive directors expressed their full confidence in the chief executive.

She said: "The issues Mrs Jones raises have been well documented in recent weeks and the trust has outlined many initiatives which are progressing and issues regarding funding shortfalls and how this is being tackled."

She added that a great deal of changes have been made to modernise the service since Ms Davies joined. She said: "This devolution has proved difficult for some staff, but for many it has improved their way of working."