27 July 2007
Cotswolds MP condemns Great Western Ambulance Trust for taking ambulance coverage away from the Cotswolds yesterday, to cover the urban areas of Gloucestershire.
At the Summer Adjournment Debate, Mr Clifton-Brown said: “The Chief Executive of the Great Western Ambulance Trust has admitted to me in a letter of 4 July that ‘rurally based resources have been pulled in to the urban areas’…Ambulances are being taken away from rural areas and are being put into towns. A fact, that has already caused the loss of one life.”
The Government requires ambulances attend 75 percent of emergencies within eight minutes and 95 percent within fourteen minutes.
Mr Clifton-Brown raised the tragic case of Miss Rebecca Wedd, who on 25th May was hit by a car near to the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and had to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance to attend her, he said “A young lady tragically died because of that.”
He also raised the case of Evan Bailey, a 12-year-old boy from Coates who had his first ever asthma attack on 23 January this year and whose ambulance took half an hour to arrive. Mr Clifton-Brown said: “Let us all imagine the panic of that small boy and his parents, Christopher and Rosemary, as he underwent a new and frightening experience…How many other constituents have had their lives put at risk? Despite assurances from the Chief Executive of the Trust, I am not convinced targets are being met even in the most urban parts of my constituency, let alone in the many far-flung villages, hamlets and farms of the Cotswolds.
Mr Clifton-Brown went on to explain that the 2006 merger between Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Ambulance Services has led to a decline in service for his constituents, and that he had in fact held a Debate on the topic of the merger on 9 February 2005 when he said:"“If someone is lying beside the road, dying from a motor accident…the one thing that that person wants is a quick ambulance response. The merger will inevitably slow down that response…If they do not have a proper ambulance service when they need it, they will die. There is no question about that. We must be sure that the merger will work; otherwise, we are putting people’s lives at risk.”
Mr Clifton-Brown concluded by saying:“I take no pleasure at all in saying that that prophecy sadly came true and I ask the ambulance trust to see what it can do to prevent it from ever happening again.”
At the Summer Adjournment Debate, Mr Clifton-Brown said: “The Chief Executive of the Great Western Ambulance Trust has admitted to me in a letter of 4 July that ‘rurally based resources have been pulled in to the urban areas’…Ambulances are being taken away from rural areas and are being put into towns. A fact, that has already caused the loss of one life.”
The Government requires ambulances attend 75 percent of emergencies within eight minutes and 95 percent within fourteen minutes.
Mr Clifton-Brown raised the tragic case of Miss Rebecca Wedd, who on 25th May was hit by a car near to the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and had to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance to attend her, he said “A young lady tragically died because of that.”
He also raised the case of Evan Bailey, a 12-year-old boy from Coates who had his first ever asthma attack on 23 January this year and whose ambulance took half an hour to arrive. Mr Clifton-Brown said: “Let us all imagine the panic of that small boy and his parents, Christopher and Rosemary, as he underwent a new and frightening experience…How many other constituents have had their lives put at risk? Despite assurances from the Chief Executive of the Trust, I am not convinced targets are being met even in the most urban parts of my constituency, let alone in the many far-flung villages, hamlets and farms of the Cotswolds.
Mr Clifton-Brown went on to explain that the 2006 merger between Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Ambulance Services has led to a decline in service for his constituents, and that he had in fact held a Debate on the topic of the merger on 9 February 2005 when he said:"“If someone is lying beside the road, dying from a motor accident…the one thing that that person wants is a quick ambulance response. The merger will inevitably slow down that response…If they do not have a proper ambulance service when they need it, they will die. There is no question about that. We must be sure that the merger will work; otherwise, we are putting people’s lives at risk.”
Mr Clifton-Brown concluded by saying:“I take no pleasure at all in saying that that prophecy sadly came true and I ask the ambulance trust to see what it can do to prevent it from ever happening again.”
