CROSS party support in the Senedd has been gathered in a bid to fight proposals to close Wales Air Ambulance bases in mid and north Wales.
A Welsh Conservatives-led debate on Wednesday called on the Welsh Government to keep open the charity’s bases in Welshpool and Caernarfon.
A proposal was brought forward in August last year from the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service and the charity to close them and centralise services at a single location in north Wales, prompting over 20,000 people to sign two petitions calling for the retention of both bases.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister and Montgomeryshire MS Russell George, who led the debate and said he was “gobsmacked that such a proposal is even being considered”, said: “We recognise the invaluable work of the Wales Air Ambulance, as do all those who live in north and mid Wales, which is why we are all very concerned about the prospect of services being reduced and moved further away from us.
“Given the regions have large populations of older people, poor road networks, few large hospitals, and several scenic locations where people would like to go climbing or hiking, it feels we will be seeing the reduction in bases despite the higher need for air ambulances in these areas.”
Mid and West Wales MS Jane Dodds supported the motion saying the two bases are a “lifeline” for mid and north Wales.
“It’s my strong view that the Welsh Air Ambulance charity has not been able to demonstrate, by independent evidence, that more lives will be saved – in particular that more lives in mid Wales would be saved and those areas won’t be adversely affected by the changes,” she said.
“The strength of the public outcry has been clear, and public concern over these proposals is not misplaced.
“There has been a long history in mid Wales of authorities moving public services out of local communities with the promise they can access better services elsewhere, only for these promises to never materialize.
“Unless it can be proved beyond doubt that these proposals will increase the number of lives saved in mid Wales, then I am unwilling to support a decision which may lead to a degradation of service for the residents which I represent.”
Wales Air Ambulance said the changes would allow them to “offer different medical shifts operational from a central north-Wales location to cover mid and north Wales”, with “modelling showing the changes would allow it to potentially attend 583 more missions a year and go from meeting 72 per cent of demand to 88 per cent of demand.”