Ambulance Response Times "not determined by location of Ambulance Station"

4.11.00pm GMT Mon 24th Jan 2005

A local councillor in Chepstow has today joined the debate of the issue of the proposed relocation of Chepstow's Ambulance station to Parkwall, near Crick.

Cllr. Phil Hobson, who is also Mayor of Chepstow, said today that "Ambulance response times are not determined by the location of the Ambulance station but rather than a problem of paramedic crews being held up at hospitals."

Phil Hobson's family recently had first hand experience of waiting for an ambulance due to a medical emergency. His mother, Mrs. Pam Hobson, suffered a heart attacked in the early hours of Monday December 20th, just before Christmas.

"My father made the first 999 call at about ten to two in the morning. After ten minutes I made a second call and was advised that all crews were busy but someone would be with us as soon as possible. The paramedic crew arrived some 25 minutes later between quarter and twenty past two in the morning."

However, it was when the family arrived at the Royal Gwent Hospital following the ambulance that it emerged to Cllr. Hobson that ambulance response times were affected more by the fact that paramedic crews were blocked up at the hospital.

"When we arrived there were four of fives ambulances parked outside the entrance to Accident & Emergency. From half past two in the morning until about ten past six, the paramedics look after mum. It wasn't until about three-and-half hours later that there was a hospital trolley available. This meant that the 'duty of care' was with the paramedics and rather than the hospital until they have a spare trolley. During that time Chepstow's one ambulance crew was stuck at the Royal Gwent and effectively there was no crew in Chepstow to respond to an emergency."

He added, "There has been a debate and concern over the proposed relocation of the town's ambulance station in Chepstow to Parkwall. The paramedic crews I talked to that night all told me that they could provide a better service from a strategic location like Parkwall than having crews dispersed in separate towns. I was told that around eighty per cent of their calls are in the Caldicot to Magor area, so having somewhere more central to cover the area would lead to better response times for everyone."

"Clearly spending several hours with paramedic crews telling me what they needed to do their jobs to their best convinced me that wherever the ambulance station for Chepstow is located does not determine response times to emergency calls. Seeing several crews hanging around Accident and Emergency for several hours is leading to the log-jam and is the root cause of the problem. When you think there are nine or ten ambulances covering the Gwent area and you see half of them parked up at the hospital for several hours, you realise that something is seriously wrong. It's frightening."

Asked if the Cllr. Hobson's family would be failing a complaint regarding the time it took for an ambulance to arrive to his mother's medical emergency, he said "Absolutely out of the question."

"We have no basis on which to make a complaint. The paramedics arrived in time and, thinking back, they saved my mum's life. Their professionalism and expertise shone out immediately, we were reassured instantly. I know what's its like to stand in the middle of the road and pray that the ambulance will arrive at that moment. However, what is more frightening is that when ambulance crews get to hospital they are held there for hours. That's where the problem is and that is what needs to change."

"Over the last six weeks we have visited the Royal Gwent Hospital and every time there has been three, four or even five ambulances parked up outside A & E. That's nearly half the ambulance cover for Gwent. Every ambulance held up there, means more and more time people have to wait in a medical emergency."