Shropshire Star

Star comment: Danger of having no borders

In an emergency, in which every second counts in getting somebody to hospital, it does not really matter whether the person inside the ambulance is from Shropshire, or whether the ambulance itself is based in Shropshire. It is simply a question of human need.

Published

That does not mean, though, that organisational matters are of no importance and that an "ambulances without borders" policy has no potential consequences for Salopians.

An Oswestry-based ambulance has been used for what appear to be routine patient transfers to hospitals in Chester and Wrexham, and Oswestry Heath Group is worried by the amount of time being taken up out of the county, which is exacerbated by queues at the Wrexham hospital.

Currently the provision of accident and emergency services in Shropshire to meet the needs of the future is a matter for consultation and intense debate, but ambulances are the first step in the whole process.

The concern in Oswestry is an indication of the complicated issues which have to be considered in finding the best way forward.

Shropshire does not have its own ambulance service, and has not for some years now since this county was lumped in with West Midlands Ambulance Service. A rigid "Shropshire ambulances for Shropshire people" attitude is a stand which is untenable, impractical, and immoral. In an emergency it is all hands to the pumps.

Nevertheless, you have to look at things in terms of local cover, and if an ambulance from Oswestry, or anywhere else in Shropshire for that matter, is engaged in non-urgent work miles away from its base, it means there is a gap in cover left behind in Shropshire.

Most of the time, you will get away with it. Then there will be the occasions in which you do not, when a little old lady falls over and breaks her leg and is left lying in the street for an hour or more while people around her wonder why it is taking so long for the ambulance to get there.

The NHS is a service operating under great pressure and you can see the appeal of putting ambulances to good use rather than having them idly waiting around for something to happen which might not happen.

However, in more senses than one, things can go too far.

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