Fire boss in ambulance delay fury

Bolton divisional fire officer, Alan Woodward, claims the incident in the Astley Bridge Asda store on Sunday afternoon was the second time firemen have had to stand in for the ambulance service in just a week.

The manager of Bolton's Astley Bridge Asda, Stuart Davy, claimed they were kept waiting 45 minutes before realising that an ambulance was not being sent.

But today ambulance chiefs said the service had been put under huge strain on the day as paramedics struggled to cope with more 999 calls than were taken last New Year's Eve.

Cut backs

An ambulance service spokesman also said that off-duty fire officers who were helping the stricken woman at the scene were told of the huge workload paramedics were dealing with. Fire Divisional Officer Woodward said: " I am concerned that as we are reaching the Millennium, the ambulance service has cut back so much that it cannot cope with the minimum requirement."

Off-duty firemen raced to the rescue of Moira Evans who collapsed in front of shocked bargain hunters at Asda on Sunday.

The ambulance service was contacted four times but a vehicle was not assigned to the case, because there was no spare vehicle available.

During the anxious wait in which Mrs Evans' condition was rapidly deteriorating, the firemen decided to by-pass the ambulance service and told Asda staff to alert the fire brigade's own emergency Land Rover and trauma expert based at Bolton North Fire Station.

The drama began at 2pm when an off-duty doctor and two off-duty firemen - Neil Bannister from Bolton Central Fire Station and Stacey Jefferies - heard Asda staff appealing on the tannoy for medical assistance. The local doctor confirmed that Mrs Evans, was having a heart attack and needed life-saving treatment.

Divisional Officer, Alan Woodward, said:

"A request for the Land Rover was made and a trauma technician, Mark Chadwick, and a firemen Tom Finney went with it to save the woman. "I would go so far to say that they saved this woman's life." The woman, in her sixties and believed to have been visiting relatives in the Bolton area but lives in Tameside, was taken in the Land Rover to the Royal Bolton Hospital where she was admitted and is described as "satisfactory" in coronary care today.

Mr Woodward added: "I am making a high profile issue out of this. A similar incident happened in Hindley which I was also involved in last weekend.

"I had to come in especially to debrief my men because I knew how upset they were about the incident.

"They are not used to facing these sort of situations. They are not trained to be ambulance paramedics. It is not in our arena - we have not got the equipment."

Divisional Commander for Bolton and Wigan Fire Service, Mr Robert Menhinick, confirmed that representations would be made to the Fire Service Operations headquarters to tackle the issue with ambulance bosses.

Asda manager Mr Davy, who praised the efforts of the off-duty first aiders, added: " It was pretty unfortunate that it took so long for the ambulance. I don't know what the delay was. They're only down the road from us. It would have been quicker to walk."

But ambulance service bosses said that on Sunday they dealt with more 999 calls than during last New Year's Eve.

Control room staff were bombarded with 1,136 calls - a 50 per cent increase on the same time last year - which meant every emergency vehicle was on a job, when Mrs Evans fell ill.

An ambulance spokesman said a flu epidemic, which is sweeping the region, coupled with an increase in road traffic accidents and drunken "casualties" had placed the service under massive strain.

He added: "The control room staff and crews on the road have done an outstanding job in very difficult circumstances.

"It was 40 minutes before they could even find a vehicle to assign to the lady. It is not a case of being short-staffed at all, we are simply under huge strain."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.