- Cymraeg
- English
 |
Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
 |
Welsh Liberal Democrats demand improvements on ambulance services
July 15, 2009 12:00 AM
In a debate tabled by the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly this afternoon, the party will call for the Welsh Government to provide financial stability for the Wales Ambulance service, investment in infrastructure and the development of telephone triage services across Wales.
The debate is a response to the release of further statistics that show that many parts of Wales are still missing the target of eight minutes for an emergency vehicle response. The government target is for an average of 65% of calls to be responded to in this time, however in May this year many Local Health Boards were below this figure. The lowest figure was in Powys, where only 46% of emergency calls were responded to within eight minutes.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Health, Peter Black AM, said:
"Ambulance response times are such a significant issue because a difference of only a few minutes can be a substantial factor as to whether people survive emergencies such as heart attacks."
"The service clearly has problems, which is why we saw such a significant drop in performance in December. If these problems are not addressed, there is a risk we will see these problems reoccur next winter."
"The government is forcing a cut of £30 million over two years from the Ambulance Service's budget when it is struggling to meet difficult targets. This will only exacerbate the problems being faced. Cutting money to a failing service is dooming it to failure. There needs to be investment, coupled with work to solve the problems faced in accident and emergency departments to ensure that there is not a return to the queues of ambulances waiting to drop patients off last year."
"The government's plans to cut the ambulance services budget will only lead to increased response times, and this will put lives at risk."
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats