Helen Morgan Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire has this evening passed a party policy motion at the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference to tackle the ambulance service crisis.
In the new policy, called ‘The Crisis in Our Ambulance Services’ passed by Liberal Democrat members this weekend the party calls for:
- Emergency funding to be made available to ambulance trusts to reverse closures of community ambulance stations and cancel planned closures where needed.
- The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid to commission the CQC to conduct an investigation into the causes and impacts of ambulance service delays.
- An Ambulance Waiting Times Bill to be passed into law requiring accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times to be published.
- A campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.
Helen has made clear that tackling the WMAS crisis is one of her top priorities since becoming elected as the MP for North Shropshire, she is now taking the policy to the top of the party to become national policy.
It comes as the Government said that 9 of 11 ambulance services in England are still at REAP level 4, the highest alert level – three months after it was first confirmed that every ambulance service in England was at that level.
Speaking after the ‘The Crisis in Our Ambulance Services’ motion passed at Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, said: “For too long this Conservative Government has ignored the crisis facing our ambulance services across the country. But here, in Shropshire is where we have been let down the most.
“I have heard too many tragic stories of people being left stranded waiting for an ambulance to arrive, the pain from residents across North Shropshire is all too common.
“Our services are under extreme pressure and the Conservatives have done nothing but sit on their hands, the Health Secretary still hasn’t even responded to my request for a meeting.
“Their failure to tackle the crisis in our ambulance services is putting patients’ lives at risk – they need a plan.
“That’s why I’m proud to be putting forward a plan to fix this crisis and hold the Government to account.”