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OXFORDSHIRE Primary Care Trust has expressed a "high level of concern" about the state of ambulance provision in the county and commissioned a review of the service.

And South Central Ambulance Service has come under fire from members of a health watchdog, who fear rural communities are getting a poor service. Service directors and PCT representatives were recently called before the high-level Oxfordshire health overview and scrutiny committee.

Chief executive Will Hancock explained how an ambulance came to be sent to Grove, near Leighton Buzzard, rather than Grove, near Wantage, in February - as reported by The Herald. He said: "The address did not appear on the drop-down menu for the call handler, so the handler went on to search for Grove. They picked the wrong Grove from the list.

"There was no confirmation with the caller - again this was an operator error."

He said it was the first time in his eight years such a mistake had happened and that the address - Mably Way - had now been added to the computer system.

He also stressed the trust had met its regional targets for emergency call-outs between April 2007 and April 2008 - achieving 75.1 per cent of life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes and 95.3 per cent within 19 minutes.

However, scrutiny committee member Richard Langridge said the figures did not allay concerns about ambulance provision outside urban areas.

He said: "I don't think we have equity in rural areas."

Heather Wicks, head of non-elective care commissioning at the PCT, said an independent report into the ambulance service had been commissioned.

She said: "There's a high level of concern regarding performance and that's shared with our colleagues across south central."

Scrutiny committee chairman Dr Peter Skolar said: "I'm expecting the PCTs to increase resources available to the ambulance trust.

"I want that report and I am expecting plans to provide more resources in rural areas."

Ambulance service spokesman Alison Brumfitt said: "We have more ambulances going into Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and we are attending calls faster then we have done before."

She said the ambulance service had a poor period leading up to Christmas last year, because of an increase in demand at a time when more staff were needed, but said people should not be concerned.

A PCT spokesman said: "We have commissioned an independent review that will consider optimum service models, efficiency and resources required.

"The results of this review, which will be available in the early summer, will help to shape future services provided by the ambulance trust."

11:14am Friday 30th May 2008

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