THE ongoing row about the ambulance service in Monmouth and district took a bizarre new twist this week. An ambulance was called to an alleged incident in the Carbonne Close area of the town, but no vehicle was available to deal with the incident. Therefore, the air ambulance were called. However, local people at the scene said the "injured" man was in fact apparently the worse for alcohol and did not need medical attention. Town councillor John Fletcher, who lives at Carbonne Close, was at the scene and told The Beacon local people were amazed to see the air ambulance descend from the skies on the play area. "It appears someone rang for an ambulance, but was told one was not available, so they sent the air ambulance instead" he said. Mr Fletcher said he was being inundated with complaints from people about the ambulance service. "One gentleman had to wait for three hours for an ambulance and later died in hospital" he said. "I thought the response time was eight minutes, so why did it take three hours?" Mr Fletcher said he had been given information which suggested the Monmouth ambulance station was closing. Mr Fletcher has now written to the head of the Welsh Ambulance Service, Mr Allan Murray, laying out the allegations about the service. These also included a claim that another family, living in King Henry 5th Close, had been forced to wait six hours for an ambulance. Another family allegedly waited for five hours. Referring to the latest incident involving the air anbulance, Mr Fletcher asked how much it cost for an air ambulance to attend an incident. "In my opinion, there should be two ambulances and two response vehicles stationed at Monmouth depot to deal with local incidents" he added. Meanwhile the Electors Forum Pressure Group has received a letter from Mr Christopher Sims, of the ambulance service, giving an assurance that the provision of suitable and adequate ambulance emergency cover for the Monmouth area was a priority for the service to achieve within the constraints of the finance and staffing available.
