Station move plan is ‘stupid’ (From Malvern Gazette)

Station move plan is ‘stupid’

2:40pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in News By Gary Bills-Geddes

AMBULANCE chiefs are offering to meet a new Ledbury pressure group that is battling to stop the Bye Street-based station from closing.

But West Midlands Ambulance Service says the proposal to move to the police station, set to happen in April, has already been well discussed; it will save money, and will actually increase emergency ambulance cover in the market town.

The newly-formed Save Our Station (SOS) group already has almost 200 members on its Facebook site, with many calling for a public meeting to discuss the closure and others giving personal reasons why the station should stay where it is.

SOS member Mark Hayden said: “I have twice had my life saved by the fact that we had a local ambulance. On both occasions I would not have made it if the ambulance had to be dispatched from Hereford.

This is the most stupid idea I have ever heard.” Supporter, Janet Meredith, said: “Didn’t Ledbury learn the hard way about how vital ambulance cover was a few summers ago, when we waited 30 minutes for an ambulance to treat an elderly patient not 100 yards from the station, unmanned at 10am on Monday morning?”

In that case, pensioner Alfred ‘Pip’ Parry, aged 81, collapsed and died outside his Lawnside Road flat in 2008, while an ambulance took more than 25 minutes to arrive from Bromyard.

The Ledbury ambulance was on a call to Malvern at the time. Under the new system, Ledbury’s ambulance team for the double-crewed ambulance (DCA) will have to book on at Hereford each morning and, from there, they could be sent on call anywhere in the West Mercia area.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service has already given assurances that no a single day will pass when the DCA is not parked at Ledbury Police Station at some point, and Ledbury will have 24/7 cover at all times through the use of paramedic cars.

Spokesman Chris Kowalik said: “We have already accepted invitations to go to speak to people proactively, and if anyone wants us to do a presentation, that is fine.

“But the ambulance station in Ledbury is just a building, and the building does not save lives.

“The staff in the ambulances save lives. We are actually increasing cover in Ledbury.

The savings we make will go into a 24/7 ambulance service.”

Mr Kowalik said the ambulance service made its plans known to the town council as far back as May 2010.