Steve Barclay is campaigning with Littleport residents Louise Brighton and Debra Jordan for the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust to improve local paramedic cover, following changes made to meet Government targets.

Steve Barclay is campaigning with Littleport residents Louise Brighton and Debra Jordan for the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust to improve local paramedic cover, following changes made to meet Government targets.

The Ambulance Service is required to respond to 75% of emergency calls within 8 minutes.  It is easier for them to meet this target by responding to calls in urban Cambridge than in the rural area of East Cambridgeshire.   As a result they have made changes to our local cover which reduces the response times in Littleport and the surrounding villages.  We have already had a disturbing number of cases where ambulances failed to turn up quickly to emergency incidents.

Campaigners in Littleport are furious at the lack of local consultation about these changes, and the high handed approach of the Ambulance Trust.  Steve has been working with campaign organisers Louise Brighton and Debra Jordan, who have leafleted every house in Littleport to raise awareness of this issue.

Steve Barclay said he is shocked by the lack of transparency from the Ambulance Service. "If someone falls ill in Littleport there is no hospital close by, so good paramedic cover is particularly important to a rural community.  There is also a high local number of special needs and medically dependent families who rely on paramedic cover in Littleport. It is very concerning that there has been no adequate explanation for these changes.

Council Leader Fred Brown who lives opposite the GP surgery where one of the paramedics was based prior to the change commented "This has exposed a weakness in the statutory framework which applies to the Ambulance Trust.  Every other public body has accountability to the public, but the Ambulance Trust is in danger of only consulting with the staff directly affected by these changes".

Lobbying from Steve Barclay and Cllr Brown led to the Ambulance NHS Trust attending a public meeting, but once again their approach was far from open and transparent.  If elected to Parliament, Steve Barclay will ensure that the actions of the Ambulance Trust are subject to closer scrutiny so that rural communities are not treated as second class areas.

Campaign organisers Louise Brighton & Debra Jordan with Conservative
Parliamentary Candidate Steve Barclay and ECDC Leader Cllr Fred Brown

Littleport camapigners Debra Jordan and Louise Brighton with Steve Barclay
at their Saturday morning stall in the High Street. Supporters delivered over
3000 leafters across Littleport within just three and a half hours, showing
the strength of local opinion on this issue.

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