A TRIAL run of an extra ambulance in the Cotswolds was ended after three months because response times were not improved.

South Western Ambulance Service Trust (SWAST) introduced an extra vehicle and crew, based in Cirencester, in response to a failure to meet the 75 per cent target for responding to 999 calls within eight minutes.

However, a report by the service has revealed that the extra ambulance in August, September and October failed to improve response times.

The report said: "For that reason, this additional resource was stood-down as it was incurring added expenditure with little gain in performance levels."

Cotswold District Council member Cllr Paul Hodgkinson said that at one stage last year the ambulance service was only responding to 46 per cent of emergence calls within eight minutes, and that more needs to be done to improve the situation.

“It’s very disappointing that this extra ambulance has had no impact on the very poor response times," he said.

"It seems strange that it hasn’t, so the question has to be why not?

"I would like to see the service restructured so that the response times improve significantly – I welcome some of the proposals the Trust is making but we do need to see a real improvement for our area.”

“I have heard that ambulance crews based in Cirencester have been diverted off as far as Weston-super-Mare which seems bonkers.

"Wouldn’t a county-based service make more sense than this huge regional one which leads to ambulances going right across a big region?"

There are currently ambulance stations in Moreton-in-Marsh, Cirencester, Stroud, Dursley and Tewkesbury, which serve the Cotswolds.

A SWAST spokeswoman said: “The Trust works very closely with our councillors across the Cotswolds through the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC), and many of them recently visited our control room in Bristol to understand some of the challenges we face when covering such a large rural locality.

“A three-month trial of an extra double crewed ambulance took place throughout August, September and October. Across the Cotswolds the Trust receives on average one RED1 call (immediately life-threatening emergency) per day, so it is difficult to predict precisely where and when these types of incidents will take place.

“To ensure every patients receives the best possible care, the extra crew would also have been responding to calls where they were the nearest available resource, which may have taken them out of the Cotwolds.

“SWASFT is currently undertaking many initiatives in order to continue to deliver the most appropriate care to our patients across the Cotswolds.

“These initiatives include the roll-out of community defibrillators and recruiting more community first responders.

“Responders attend specific types of emergencies within their local communities where it is essential for the patient to receive immediate life-saving care while an ambulance is on the way. This includes conditions such as cardiac arrest, chest pain, breathing difficulties and strokes."