Monmouth Town Council has agreed to regular updates on the ambulance and health provision for the town following a presentation by Richard Lee, regional director of the Welsh Ambulance Service.

He outlined the revised protocol for assessing emergency calls and spoke of the problems encountered with emergency vehicles tied up at A&E departments at hospitals.

He told councillors that a portable cabin facility was on order while they factored in a replacement building for the present ambulance station, which requires £400,000 to repair and bring it up to date with legislative and quality standards.

Apart from December 2011, response times were in line with the standards laid down by the Welsh Assembly Government.

He explained that a high dependency vehicle is being introduced and would be able to convey a patient to hospital, freeing up the ambulance which would have previously backed up the response car.

The high dependency vehicle would be based in Abergavenny and be available for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

This would be followed by a 24-hour service, provided from somewhere like Bassaleg to undertake non-emergency work across the region.

They were also looking to increase the use of the helicopter available to them as a lot of the calls in the outlying areas are best dealt with through this means.

In response to a question by Councillor Ann Were, Mr Lee said that at the moment, there was a possibilty of four different responses to an initial life threatening call (category A call); A paramedic in a car; an ambulance; a community first responder, or an ambulance manager like himself who is a trained paramedic.

A cross-border agreement has been put in place with bordering county ambulance services to provide extra cover at busy times.

A GP-enhanced service is to be made available to enable patients to be referred to local GP practices rather than being taken to a hospital.

Information that would be

provided to Monmouth Town Council on a monthly basis would be a breakdown by postcode of statistics and the trust's report to the Community Health Council.

It was agreed by councillors to place an item on the agenda so that the monthly updates from the ambulance service could be monitored along with general health matters that affect the town, and a working party with councillors Dewhurst, Christopher, Chivers, White and Fletcher would liaise with the Welsh Ambulance Service.