MP gives ‘two cheers’ to announcement for more ambulances for the North West

Local MP Tim Farron has welcomed the news that more emergency ambulances are set to come to the North West.

Last month, Tim met with the health minister Stephen Hammond to raise the need for more ambulances for the South Lakes.

Following the meeting, Mr Hammond wrote to Tim saying that "in response to the concerns about ambulance response times, North West Ambulance Service have undertaken a wide-ranging review of how response can be improved" and are now "working on implementing a programme of improvement actions, including procuring additional emergency ambulances".

Recent figures from the NHS show that the North West has the lowest number of ambulances per head in the country, half the number per head of London despite covering a much larger geographical area.

Tim said: "This promise of additional ambulances from the minister is a really welcome step forward.

"Our local paramedics are overworked and overstretched and as a result I've had an influx of local people contacting me about having to wait hours for an ambulance to arrive to give them the treatment they so desperately need.

"But we won't be popping the champagne cork just yet - we need a cast iron guarantee that we will see some of these ambulances here in the South Lakes."