Today, Friday , a follow up meeting took place to try to improve ambulance response times across rural south West Shropshire and much of Montgomeryshire. The reconfiguration of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal has brought the often poor response times of ambulances into sharp focus. Today Shropshire campaigners expressed delight at the progress made since their March meeting. Those attending included the West Midlands Ambulance service, Shropshire PCT, the Hospital Trust and GP representative, Cllr Heather Kidd, Cllr Nigel Hartin and new Regional Welsh Assembly Member, William Powell.
” We’ve made some excellent progress in todays talks with a much closer working relationship now beginning to pay dividends. They are all working hard on the issue and should have some concrete agreements in the next few weeks” said long time ambulance campaigner Cllr Heather Kidd, whose daughter waited 35 minutes for an ambulance 3 years ago whilst having a serious asthma attack.
Nigel Hartin, councillor for Clun said ” This has also brought politicians from both sides of the border together to improve things for Welsh and English patients alike. If this work means that more lives are saved then we will have really achieved something for our very rural areas.”