Some Waiting An Hour For An Ambulance

30 January 2019, 07:12 | Updated: 30 January 2019, 07:17

Some patients in the South Lakes are waiting more than an hour for an ambulance.

Local MP Tim Farron says his health survey suggests it could be as high as 1 in 10.

He puts it down to ambulances having to ferry people to Barrow or Lancaster, when they could be using the Urgent Treatment Centre at Westmorland General.

Mr. Farron said: “Our ambulance crews do a wonderful job of taking care of us, and I found that out first hand when I spent a day out with them last year.

“But what the results of my survey show, on top of anecdotal evidence of people writing to me, is that our local ambulances having to take people to Barrow and Lancaster instead of Kendal means that people in parts of the South Lakes who have an emergency will have to wait far too long for help.

“Having secured an Urgent Treatment Centre at Westmorland General Hospital there is now scope for more people to be able to be seen closer to home – I’ll help our local hospitals trust in any way that I can to make this happen.”