Row over poor ambulance response times in Market Drayton

Ambulances are taking up to 40 minutes to respond to emergencies in a north Shropshire town, it has been claimed.

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Market Drayton Town Council says it will now ask for exact figures from West Midlands Ambulance Service after the claims were made at a meeting last night.

No one from the ambulance service was at the meeting to respond.

Councillor Roger Smith said the town does not have sufficient coverage since the changes to the ambulance service were introduced in April under the Make Ready scheme.

At a meeting of Market Drayton Town Council's Community and Governance Committee in the Town Hall Chamber he said paramedics and first responders were 'doing a brilliant job,' but ambulances were taking too long to arrive.

He said: "I was told two days ago that it took an hour and 20 minutes to get to an incident in Market Drayton. When the changes were made I was told the sub station would be responding in 15 minutes.

"As a member of the fire service, I went to an incident by The Hippodrome pub, the paramedics were there in eight minutes but the ambulance service took 30 minutes.

"Two weeks ago I responded to a serious traffic collision on the A41 at Tern Hill. That time it took at least 30 or 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive on scene."

But Councillor Roy Aldcroft said figures show West Midlands Ambulance Service was meeting the response time target of eight minutes.

"The response times have improved dramatically because paramedics are in the town," he said. "But they are not recording what time the ambulance arrives.

"We need to ask them for the second time for the past three months and for someone to explain that to us."