An unconscious woman was left waiting for an ambulance because the operator did not know where Shrewsbury was - even asking if it was in Telford, MP Daniel Kawczynski claimed today.
Mr Kawczynski said that he was furious after being told about the incident by a constituent who helped the injured woman. Now the Shrewsbury MP has written a letter to the chief executive of West Midlands Ambulance Service Anthony Marsh.
And Mr Kawczynski says he will raise the matter in Parliament.
The incident took place on November 28 and involved a lady who fainted between the Raven Meadows multi-storey car park and Somerfield supermarket.
As she fell, she hit her head.Mr Kawczynski said the constituent, who did not wish to be named, said several calls to emergency services were made. He claimed after 10 minutes another call had to be made.
But West Midlands Ambulance Service bosses say an ambulance arrived at the scene within eight minutes of the call.
Mr Kawczynski said: “The operator asked the caller where was Shrewsbury and was it in Telford?
“It is a total disgrace that someone rings up and they are asked where Shrewsbury is.
“The problem we have is that each time a constituent comes to see me and raises concerns about this issue, I have written to the chief executive Anthony Marsh and he has given me his assurances that the problems will be sorted out.
“I warned him not to close Shrewsbury Ambulance Control Centre because it would lead to problems.
“This cannot go on and I will have to raise the matter in Parliament.”
A West Midlands Ambulance spokesman said that the trust was aware of concerns raised by Mr Kawczynski.
He said: “The trust was called to reports of a member of public who had fallen in the road outside Somerfield and Wilkinsons in Shrewsbury at 11.40am on November 28.
“An ambulance was immediately dispatched and arrived at the scene at 11.48am.
“The patient was treated by crews before being transferred to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
“All calls for Shropshire are handled by our emergency operations centre in Brierley Hill, Dudley.
“The trust will be responding directly to Daniel Kawczynski MP about his concerns in due course.”
16 Comments
IQ tests for ambulance drivers? God help the Sat Nav generation when their device fails.
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Whoops! I mean’t operators.
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The same situation is going to happen with the Fire and Rescue Service when they are forced into the combined controls later next year.
The current fire control is staffed by local people with local knowledge which has not been recognised by those driving this cost cutting excercise.
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Shrewsbury is not that well known if you do not belong to this part of the country.
I wonder how many Salopians know where Bagginswood is or even where Harlech is???
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common tho, all it would of taken is one part of the postcode or even to trace the call back to the area, they would of found where shrewsbury was then, its not like to went to the shops and couldnt be found. the ambulance needs to upgrade there systems to be much faster, or just have an A-Z sitting next to the operator, thats right multi-task, it will save lives.
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Missed the point Merc half a story and half cocked response.
Nothing to do with the Ambulance staff. Its the call operator at Millennium Point Brierley Hill first response to the call and possibly first week in the job. Sadly if our 999 calls were still being taken in Shrewsbury this would not have happened….
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I think the point is that those responding to emergency calls should be from this part of the country, and that local knowledge is a vital part of the first response. We could probably save a lot of taxpayers money by routing the 999 service through a call centre in India, but is that what you would want when you have an emergency?
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The calltaker could well have been in training and there could have been a number of other reasons. Was the call made from a mobile phone? These frequently get routed to the wrong Control Centre.
The point is that we don’t know what happened. But these things occasionally do happen. I wonder how much of a delay was incurred in reality - or if its been exaggerated?
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An there in lies the problem. Centralisation of services is a great idea if your a bean counter and you haven’t got to deliver the service.
Local knowledge from local operators is fare more valuble than the £ signs central control services saved.
Wait a few years and the Government will have a great idea that local services are needed. This will not be a U turn but a “change in establised policy” blah blah balh
They will throw money at it to show how much they care for the people they “serve” but we all know its just to get a few more votes and keep the incompetant in Westminster.
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but i thought shrewsbury was in telford
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The most effective solution would be a simple device that can tell the operator where the call is being made from within a few yards. The regional fire controls Clive mentioned will have such a system. With these devices even if the operator does not know the area he/she would know that the call was being made from between the Raven Meadows multi-storey car park and Somerfield supermarket in Shrewsbury and dispatched ambulances accordingly.Simple and effective.
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this is just what that Tory MP has been waiting for, another fruitless campaign that wll come to nothing, just another Shropshire Star / Chronicle photo shoot of him. I wonder if the person who reported it to him was outraged by the 8 minute wait for the ambulance or the fact that someone could possibly think that Telford had anything to do with “Shrowsbury”?
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Whether we like it or not, it is true that technology *will* make the “local knowledge is important” mantra redundant.
The local knowledge is that which is possessed by the fire and ambulance crews themselves. Local knowledge in the Control Room - while once ‘vital’ - is now only ‘useful’ and will very soon not be required. Regionalisation was on the cards for the police, the fire AND the ambulance service a long time ago - the Airwave radio system now in use with many services made it a whole lot easier.
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In todays technology, there is no excuse for not “knowing” - that is finding out quickly - where somewhere is.
BUT - The trouble is many people are becoming so reliant on sat nav etc - that the conventional “wisdom” of “knowing” basic geography - which I would expect people in these postions to have - has long been ignored and forgotten.
This was the VERY subject on these threads earlier about a lorry getting stuck because the driver relied on sat-nav - and not looking at a map - that is: “taking the effort to learn something” -
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every time the MP writes a letter it diverts staff at the ambulance control away from their proper duties, to answer his correspondence.
Perhaps he would like to do them and us and a favour and go away.
Am MP who is less self serving is what Shrewsbury requires.
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this is typical of labour governments, wasting my money on such stuff, just put the call centre in india and get the lazy dole folk who use this service to sign up to BUPA and we’ll all be better off with less burdensome taxes
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