Ambulance call-out to serious Audlem accident shows service is as bad as ever

Despite assurances of an improved service, news that it took an hour for an ambulance to arrive at a serious accident case this week in Audlem will be of enormous concern locally. An accident in the village on the A525 led to an elderly Audlem resident receiving serious fractures. An ambulance was called immediately but the badly injured man had to lie on the road for an hour. By good fortune, a 'fast responder' happened to be passing and was able to provide some help.

Appalling responses to call-outs a year ago led to a public meeting in the village on 7th June this year. At the meeting there was an assurance from North West Ambulance Service's deputy chief executive Bob Williams that the response times to emergency calls from Audlem would improve. That assurance now seems hollow after this week's incident.

The public meeting, hosted by Audlem Parish Council and arranged by local MP Stephen O'Brien, was the result of serious concerns following some very lengthy waits in Audlem for ambulances. These were reported in detail on Audlem Online and in front page lead stories in local newspapers. Stephen O'Brien took up the cases with the then Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt and directly with the NWAS who agreed to discuss the situation at a public meeting in the village.

There had been disagreements about the call-out times at a previous meeting in February. This was in part, Mr Williams said, because at present the 'official time' of the call out starts once an ambulance has been allocated to a case, not when the 999 call is received. The NWAS also claimed some of the 999 calls had not been classified as 'emergencies'. Given the seriousness of the injuries in this week's accident, it is suggested that if the NWAS tries to say this was not an emergency, they will be open to ridicule and disbelief.

Coincidentally, this week the Parish Council received details of call out times to Audlem from the NWAS. A Parish Councilor today described them as "abysmal". This afternoon, a resident involved in one of last year's incidents spoke about the latest failure. He said: "If you are a drunk who injures himself on the streets of Manchester, you might get a good service from the NWAS. But if you happen to be a decent citizen in a rural area like Audlem, you don't stand much chance. You could well be dead by the time they arrive."

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