Madam,

Ambulance response times are a rather typical example of ill-thought political management control.

Response time is a direct function of distance of ambulance vehicle from patient - fact. 60mph is a mile a minute - fact.

Averaging 60mph (from and to 0 mph) is not easy except on a motorway - fact.

If that average was always possible an ambulance would have to be stationed within eight miles of 90 per cent of potential patients - fact.

That average is patently impossible in a large rural and mountainous area such as most of Wales. Meeting the target is there-fore impossible without a huge fleet of ambulances spread out over the countryside.

Politicians and trust managers bleating about response times is a pointless exercise. Take the positioned available ambulances, draw circles around them for response times of 8, 10, 15, 20 minutes at an average speed of 50mph and you will get a crude measure of what percentage of the population is realistically within those response times (taking into account the difference in individual roads and what happens when an ambulance is off-station would give more accuracy).

Only spreading out more ambulances across the rural areas can effectively reduce response times. Pay for it and do it or accept the reality which is the ambulance service is doing the very best it can under difficult circumstances. Praise them don’t criticise.

Yours etc

Duncan Gough

Fronfraith Lane

Comins Coch

Aberystwyth.