MS tells the Trust: ‘the way to improve ambulance response in Ceredigion is to invest in the number of crews at anyone one time, not to reduce’
Ceredigion’s Member of the Senedd, Elin Jones, has called on the Welsh Ambulance Trust to clarify any plans to reduce the number of ambulances active in Ceredigion during the day.
There are currently four Ambulance Stations which are staffed 24/7 in Ceredigion: Aberystwyth and Cardigan with two crews each in the day and one at night, as well as New Quay and Lampeter with one crew each in the day and one at night.
However, Elin Jones understands that the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust has plans to take away an ambulance crew each from Aberystwyth and Cardigan during the day, and to no longer provide Urgent Care Service (UCS) cover outside of daytime weekday hours.
Elin Jones is seeking a meeting with the chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, Jason Killens, in order to clarify the situation and outline how these plans will endanger lives and increase the burden on paramedics working in Ceredigion.
Elin said:
“I’m very concerned to hear that there are currently proposals to reduce the number of ambulances in Ceredigion, namely to reduce the number active in the day by two, leaving Aberystwyth and Cardigan with one each during the day. I also understand that there will no longer be Urgent Care Service cover outside of daytime weekday hours.
“Over the summer, I have heard of several reports of constituents who have had to wait for many hours for an ambulance response. The paramedics are always praised for their work, but the time to respond is sometimes dangerously long. If day ambulance cover is reduced by over 30% in Ceredigion then that will have a serious deteriorating impact on ambulance response times.
“As I understand it, Ceredigion based ambulance crews regularly cross the border into Powys, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire leaving Ceredigion with no cover. To add to this, the inter-hospital transfers that crews undertake for the trauma network and for specialist cardiac care can take crews away from their station for many hours at a time.
“I have heard that crews are already working well over the end of their shifts, and that there are often long waits for crews outside hospital preventing them from responding to any outstanding emergencies.
“I can only surmise that these proposed changes will only serve to increase pressure on staff and endanger patients. To loose these two ambulances during the day and further cover for urgent care in the evenings and on weekends is not acceptable and poses a danger to lives in Ceredigion.”
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