Campaign for improved ambulance response times in south Shropshire

The MP for Ludlow has been invited to two forthcoming meetings under the Ludlow and South Shropshire needs ambulances campaign.

The campaign - led by new Ludlow town councillor Darren Childs - has gathered 9,000 signatures in a bid to provide rapid response vehicles for towns which are suffering from long ambulance waiting times after the number of hubs in Shropshire was slashed.

It started under the Ludlow banner but now encompasses Bridgnorth, Craven Arms and Bishops Castle and is growing all the time. Mr Childs started campaigning after his baby girl, who was suffering a seizure after having a fever that would not come down, was left waiting more than half an hour for paramedics.

Mr Dunne has been invited to address residents and listen to their concerns at a Ludlow Town Council meeting on April 25 and to an open day of Highley Parish Council on Saturday May 21.

Data provided by Gill George, the chair of Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Defend Our NHS shows the rate of successful call outs for category one incident - with a response required within seven minutes - was significantly higher in the Shrewsbury based SY1 postcode as compared to WV15 and WV16 postcodes in the south of the county.

She said: "Around 63 per cent of ambulance call outs are emergency calls either category one which require a response within seven minutes and valuable time is being lost by the distance they have to travel.

"At one time there were over 100 community ambulance hubs, this dwindled to 13 and over the last year four more were closed leaving very little provision at a local level."

Councillor for Bridgnorth West and Tasley and group Labour leader of Shropshire Council Julia Buckley said it was once again a case of postcodes in the country dictating what services were provided.

She said: "I applaud the work Darren has done in becoming elected onto Ludlow Town Council by highlighting the inequalities that exist in the ambulance service waiting times and I am pleased he is including all the smaller communities in the south of the county in his campaign.

"I would encourage everyone who is concerned about this issue to join the Ludlow and South Shropshire needs ambulances campaign and to attend the meetings if they can or to share there experiences with the group.

Mr Childs, who started the campaign, said he was hopeful Mr Dunne would attend at least one of the forthcoming meetings, saying he had already had preliminary meetings with him but heard nothing since.

He said: "We didn't agree on the issue of hubs but he did agree with the rapid response vehicles being more accessible and prominent so maybe that is something we can work on but there is a strength of feeling on this issue in the Ludlow and wider community and I am pleased other towns have come on board to support us."

North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan addressed Parliament on the issue last week, calling on the Government to sort out the issue of "excessive" ambulance response times in the country.