Glenda Bayley, from Holt, is co-ordinating opposition to the East of England Ambulance Trust over its response times.
PHOTO: ANTONY KELLY
Concerns over long waits for ambulances in north Norfolk
Steve Downes
Thursday, February 16, 2012
11:50 AM
Holt councillors will contact ambulance bosses amid growing anger about the time it is taking to respond to emergency calls.
Local resident Glenda Bayley contacted the town council after compiling a host of complaints about ambulances that she said took too long to reach people in distress.
Jono Read told fellow councillors on Monday: “I do feel ambulance response times in north Norfolk are getting worse and we should make more noise about it.”
Creating an ambulance hub in the area was also suggested, including incorporating an ambulance area at the new fire and police station in Sheringham.
Members agreed to continue to correspond with the East of England Ambulance Trust about the issue, and Duncan Baker added: “We need to write to the local parishes and ask them to put the pressure on too.”
Before the meeting Mrs Bayley, from Thompson Avenue in Holt, said she had collated a number of complaints about response times since she had a minor heart attack in January.
Ms Bayley said: “I raised the issue because I suffered a heart attack three years ago and had another very mild attack in January.
“When the mild heart attack happened, the paramedic arrived pretty quickly in a car, but from the time that he called them, the ambulance still hadn’t arrived 45 minutes later.
“Various friends have since told me about their experiences. From some people, I’m hearing of them waiting for three to four hours. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
She said: “We want to see more ambulances on standby across Norfolk. And I want to know where they are on standby at the moment.
“If this situation continues, I’m concerned that somebody could die.”
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2 comments
The Ambulance service is under immense pressure and at the moment is receiving a lot of bad press for problems outwith it's control. I understand that the majority of the time there are no Ambulance's on standby and they are all at the Hospital waiting to offload their patient. On a recent Hospital visit I counted 18 Ambulances parked outside the A&E unit at the Norfolk and Norwich - it would be interesting to know how many the Ambulance service has in it's fleet? I suspect that most of them were stuck at the Hospital.
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swnorwich
Friday, February 17, 2012
There is great pressure on the Ambulance service, if people would not call them for silly things they would have more time for the real inccidents! It also shows the reasons why everyone should know basic lifesaving first aid. In London respose times may be 7 minutes but in Norfolk we have country roads that take longer. More first responders and trained first aiders.
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Jez Middleton
Thursday, February 16, 2012