Ambulance crisis taken up by North Shropshire MP at Liberal Democrat conference
Shropshire's only Liberal Democrat MP passed a policy motion over ambulance services at her party's spring conference.
The new policy ‘The Crisis in Our Ambulance Services’ passed by Liberal Democrat members this weekend calls for emergency funding to be made available to ambulance trusts.
This would be used to reverse closures of community ambulance stations and cancel planned closures where needed, create a national investigation into the causes and impacts of ambulance service delays and fund a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.
It comes as the Government said nine of 11 ambulance services in England are still at REAP level 4, the highest alert level.
Helen Morgan, who was elected to represent North Shropshire at a by-election prompted by Owen Paterson's resignation, said: “For too long this Conservative Government has ignored the crisis facing our ambulance services across the country. But here, in Shropshire is where we have been let down the most.
“I have heard too many tragic stories of people being left stranded waiting for an ambulance to arrive, the pain from residents across North Shropshire is all too common."
“Our services are under extreme pressure and the Conservatives have done nothing but sit on their hands, the Health Secretary still hasn't even responded to my request for a meeting.
"Their failure to tackle the crisis in our ambulance services is putting patients’ lives at risk - they need a plan."
The Liberal Democrats also want an Ambulance Waiting Times Bill to be passed into law requiring accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times to be published.
