CONCERNS have been raised about ambulance response times in a Herefordshire town.

Ross-on-Wye’s fears about response times from ambulances deployed from other parts of the county have prompted the town council to push for more resources for the town.

Town Councillor Shelley Foreman raised the topic of ambulances at a town council meeting on October 9, and said that she would like to see more ambulances available for Ross-on-Wye as well as shorter wait times.

Earlier this year, the former mayor of Ross, Edmund O’Driscoll, who remains a county and town councillor, spoke out about his long wait for an ambulance when he had a heart attack in September 2022.

Recalling the experience, he said: "Once I was in the system the care I received was magnificent, but in order to get there I had firstly to get myself to hospital, while still having a heart attack, as the wait time for an ambulance was more than five hours."

At the meeting this month, Councillor O’Driscoll highlighted that many rural parishes are struggling with long ambulance wait times and suggested that this could be raised with the county council.

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According to data obtained via Freedom of Information request, there are only a maximum of eight ambulances available in Herefordshire at any one time, which is the lowest of any county in the West Midlands and just a third of the second-lowest, Shropshire, which has 24.

Response times in West Midlands as a region are an average of eight minutes and three seconds for the most serious emergencies, ranging up to an hour, 55 minutes and 43 seconds for less urgent incidents.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service has been approached for comment.