STROKE VICTIM WAITS OVER ONE HOUR FROM DOCTOR'S CALL - AMBULANCE SENT TO WRONG COUNTY!

9.26.00pm GMT Thu 28th Feb 2008

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Richard Burt has today challenged the West Midlands Ambulance Trust to admit that local knowledge saves lives when it comes to ambulance emergency controls.

The call follows and incident in Shropshire where a stroke victim waited well over an hour after his GP requested an ambulance. After waiting an initial 45 minutes, the GP called again and was told that the ambulance had been sent to the wrong county, Powys, because the address he gave had a Powys post code.

It took the ambulance crew another 20 minutes to return to the home of the stroke victim in Shropshire before he was eventually transferred to hospital.

Richard Burt said:

"I have been working closely with Ludlow Parliamentary Candidate, Councillor Heather Kidd on this issue. She only discovered what had happened when she called round to the home of the man in Marton with a get well card.

"Since call taking was moved from Shrewsbury to Brierley Hill, I am led to believe there has been a dip of around 12% in crucial call taking times and the Trust has been desperate to get more call takers with local knowledge of Shropshire into the Brierley Hill control.

"Having worked in a 999 control, I know how crucially important it can be to understand local accents and rural place names.

"It is no surprise to me if call times have dipped and mistakes are being made. All this flies in the face of repeated Trust claims to people in Worcestershire and Herefordshire that the loss of local knowledge will not affect public safety if Bransford is closed."

"This is precisely the reason why I have joined with staff in a bid to mount a judicial review over the decision to close Bransford EOC. If the local team goes, lives in Worcestershire will be put at risk."