Charley Morgan
UK Newsquest Regional Press
Copyright 2007 NewsQuest Media Group Limited
All Rights Reserved
WILTSHIRE, U.K. — Concerns have been raised after an ambulance got lost while responding to an emergency call in the centre of Trowbridge on Tuesday.
The vehicle and crew were from a private Bristol-based company called Wings Ambulance Service, which the Great Western Ambulance Service uses when there are peaks in demand.
Wiltshire Times photographer, Trevor Porter, spotted the vehicle just before 1.30pm circling around town clearly lost and offered to help.
He said: “I was walking along Church Street when it first passed me. Then I went into town and 10 minutes later it passed me again in Manvers Street and I saw the driver looking at his map clearly lost.
“I offered to help and jumped in the front passenger seat.
“He asked me how to get to the Isaac Pitman Pub and told me he had come from Bristol.”
The ambulance was responding to a call made by staff in the pub at 12.54pm after a customer they were told was epileptic had blacked out.
Former mayor of Trowbridge Cllr Tom James, who also used to be on the community health council that oversaw the ambulance service’s performance, labelled the situation as stupidity’.
Cllr James said: “We are playing with people’s lives here. The whole idea of having a local ambulance service is that people know the area and not being able to recognise the town centre is ridiculous.
“Let’s have ambulances back up on Hilperton Road, this is stupidity.”
A spokesman for the Great Western Ambulance Service confirmed the ambulance was delayed by not being able to find the location given.
She added that the ambulance used had been dispatched from Bath and had taken 36 minutes to reach the casualty.
The call had been flagged as a Category B call meaning the target time to reach the casualty was 19 minutes.
She said: “The vehicles are used quite often by the trust to support our service as and when required.
“They are manned by a fully trained A&E crew and the vehicles are the same as any other of our own vehicles.”
The Wings Medical Group has 22 vehicles operating out of its base in Bristol and all its paramedics are registered with the Health Professions Council.
The company was originally set up to provide a repatriation service for travel insurance companies and it also provides support services to NHS ambulance services and several NHS trusts for high dependency care transportation.