Only half ambulances on time in the Cotswolds

9:24am Sunday 4th May 2008

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AMBULANCE times in the Cotswolds are still falling far short of the standards experienced in Cheltenham and Gloucester.

Only one in two ambulances reaches a patient in the Cotswolds within the national eight-minute target, figures released this week by Great Western Ambulance Service reveal.

This makes the Cotswolds one of the worst served areas in the GWAS area, which covers Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Avon.

Some patients in the Cotswolds have reported waits of up to 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived to transport them to hospital.

And in June the Standard revealed that it took an ambulance 40 minutes to reach a 23-year-old woman who was hit by a car on the A433 in Cirencester as she walked to the Royal Agricultural College ball.

Rebecca Wedd died later in hospital despite the efforts of police officers, who were on the scene within minutes, who drove to Cirencester Hospital to fetch medical help.

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: "This confirms what I have been saying for some time.

"When the ambulance service was merged we would get a poorer service, and that is turning out to be the case.

"Secondly we need more ambulances based permanently in the Cotswolds and not have them being taken away to Cheltenham and Gloucester.

"I'm due to have a meeting with the chief executive of GWAS soon and I will be making these points strongly."