Shropshire ambulance crews called to Oswestry after spate of calls

Ambulance bosses had to call in crews from other parts of the county to deal with a spate of 999 calls in Oswestry, it was revealed today. Crews from Shrewsbury and Whitchurch were drafted in to deal with the demand.

Help was even sought from over the Welsh border from the Wales Ambulance Service.

One of the incidents involved a patient who had collapsed in the waiting room of an Oswestry doctor's surgery.

Ambulance spokeswoman Claire Thomas said: "West Midlands Ambulance Service can confirm that it was called to The Caxton Surgery on Oswald Road in Oswestry at 11.07am on Monday. Unusually, at the time of the incident, there were four other 999 calls ongoing within Oswestry; resources had already been dispatched to each.

"The ambulance based in Oswestry was at the time dealing with a patient who had had a suspected stroke - a Category A life threatening call."

She said the nearest available resource was immediately dispatched - an ambulance already en route to Oswestry due to the high level of demand in the area.

"This vehicle is based at Whitchurch," she said. "The Welsh Ambulance Service was also contacted to see if they had a nearer vehicle — unfortunately, they did not."

She said the trust's emergency operations centre called the surgery back for more details on the patient's condition and, after receiving the update, an ambulance already in Oswestry was reassigned to this case as it was now a higher priority. That ambulance is based in Shrewsbury.