The Shropshire Star had another story the other day (not available online) highlighting the disastrous regionalisation of the Ambulance Service control rooms in the West Midlands euroregion.
West Midlands NO! predicted at the time that closing control rooms in the name of regionalisation would cost lives and that prediction is coming true.
I have had personal experience of the regionalised ambulance service and the unacceptable delays in dispatching ambulances because of a lack of local knowledge and stories in the press are confirming that mine wasn’t a one-off.
The latest experience is a councillor who had a head on collision on the Shropshire/Welsh border. The councillor was disorientated but unhurt but the other driver was unconscious. It took 16 minutes and repeated attempts to explain his location before an ambulance was dispatched. The driver had more luck than the gentleman in my story but 16 minutes is more than enough time for someone to bleed to death or for a treatable injury to become fatal.
Let’s hope West Midlands Ambulance Service has an exit plan for its failing regionalisation experiment because it’s just not working and a human life is far more important than the political ambition.
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