WEST Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox this week made urgent representations to seek assurances from the South West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, after communications from constituents and recent reports indicated that ambulance services to rural areas were inadequate. This follows an incident where a young mother from Okehampton was told she would have to wait thirty-five minutes for an ambulance to arrive in order to care for her choking, new-born baby. Mr Cox said: ?I have written to the chief executive of the South West Ambulance Trust seeking assurances that urgent steps will be taken to improve the service available to rural communities in West Devon and that he will guarantee that they do not receive an inadequate and second class service. ?It is understandable that coverage of rural, sparsely populated areas presents a challenge to any ambulance service, but this only emphasises the point that adequate resources must be provided to meet it. ?With the current availability of ambulances in some areas, it is no wonder that paramedics are being stretched to the limit in an effort to maintain a service over an area of several hundred square miles.? Mr Cox said the Emergency Medicine Journal had only recently published research by Sheffield University that clearly linked increased mortality rates to longer travelling times to hospitals. ?Those risks should not be exacerbated by an overstretched ambulance service. ?Budgeting concerns must not take precedence over the protection of human life nor should the chances of surviving a serious illness or accident be directly related to the population density of the area in which they live. ?That is why I have pressed the ambulance trust to assure me that coverage of rural communities will be improved,? said Mr Cox.
