SEVEN AMBULANCE stations across Shropshire will be sold off under a major £7 million shake-up of the service in the region.

But, it is claimed, the move will see patients receive better cover under a new ‘hub and spoke’ concept which is designed to save the service thousands of pounds but create new community ambulance stations across the county.

West Midlands Ambulance Service is to create two hub sites in Telford and Shrewsbury.

Vehicles will start and finish at the hubs but will then immediately spread out to community ambulance stations, or spokes, across the county from where they will respond to emergencies.

The spoke sites will replace ambulance stations in the county’s market towns and will involve sharing a premises with other organisations such as the police and fire service.

Under the plans, the Abbey Foregate ambulance station in Shrewsbury will be sold off but a hub will be created in another part of the town which will serve as a new station and provide a centre to clean and restock ambulances.

There will also be a spoke site at Battlefield to cover the north of the town and officials will also continue to use the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for the south.

In Telford, Donnington ambulance station will be retained and will also become a hub.

Ambulance stations in Tweedale and Newport will be sold off but new spoke stations will be created possibly at sites in Trench and Telford town centre.

Chris Kowalik for the service, said ambulance stations in Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Church Stretton and Craven Arms would also be sold off. He said Whitchurch ambulance station had already been sold to West Mercia Police.

Similar arrangements are expected to continue in Ludlow and Market Drayton.

Mr Kowalik said that under the plans all market towns, excluding Shrewsbury and Telford, would receive five or six ring-fenced specially trained paramedics who would be dedicated to each town.

He said: “They will be trained to an advanced level with additional diagnostic and treatment skills and can do some extra things on site and in patients’ homes which may mean that they do not need to be conveyed to A&E.”

By Russell Roberts