I share recent concerns about delays to West Midlands Ambulance Service responding to local emergency calls.

I engage regularly with senior WMAS officers to raise constituency issues, including last Friday, at a health briefing for Shropshire MPs.

There is no doubt WMAS is under pressure, exacerbated by covid these past two years. National standards mean ambulances are supposed to respond to 90% of Category 1 emergencies within 15 minutes, but WMAS currently has an average time of 26 minutes for the Shropshire CCG area. Category 2 incidents are significantly behind the national target, with 90% of calls attended within 1hr and 47 minutes – against a national standard of 40 minutes.

There are several reasons for the pressure WMAS is currently facing. First and foremost is the delay in handing over patients from ambulance crews at A&E, meaning there are fewer ambulances on the road attending calls.

The target time between arrival and handover at hospital is supposed to be 15 minutes, WMAS’s average handover time at Princess Royal Hospital is currently 31 minutes, and 47 minutes at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital - driven by current covid infection control measures.

But as covid declines, combined with the reduced isolation period, the number of clinical staff facing self-isolation, should restore crew rotas, and alleviate stress on staff.

I am also aware of local concerns about closure of ambulance hubs in South Shropshire last year. This was something I raised with WMAS at the time, who maintained ambulances no longer respond to calls from hubs – they go directly from call to call, and whichever ambulance is nearest responds to the next call. So ambulances who begin their day in one part of the West Midlands can end up in a completely different location by the end of their shift.

So a return to the hub system would be counterproductive – as ambulances would have to spend longer returning to their hub for meals or the end of the shift, taking them off the road for longer. Similarly calls for a Shropshire-only ambulance service would only increase bureaucracy, actually leading to fewer ambulances serving our population, when we really need more.

In my meeting with WMAS I also called for more community first responders, especially in rural market towns, who could get to an emergency quickly, often before an ambulance can arrive. WMAS were receptive to this suggestion, and I shall be engaging with them to try and take this idea forward.