The ambulance you call will almost certainly not be from your neighbourhood station, says Graeme Clark
The opposition to the closure of 60-plus local ambulance stations in London centres around the idea that it will lead to longer waiting times (Fears over NHS plan to close all local ambulance stations in London, 25 September). The concept that there are untasked ambulances on standby at the ambulance station around the corner – as with fire engines at a fire station – is a model that disappeared more than 15 years ago.
Once a crew are booked on a shift, they will be out on the road (or waiting outside a hospital with a patient on board) for 12 hours or more, with a single break of 30 minutes – which often falls three or four hours either side of “mid-shift”. The ambulance you call will almost certainly not be from your local station. It will be the nearest one available that has just cleared its previous job. My wife spent 12 years as a paramedic and can count on the fingers of one hand the number of calls she went to that were local to her base.
Graeme Clark
Cradley, Herefordshire
