Betrayed! Welshpool Air Ambulance base to close

The people of Mid Wales are set to be betrayed by a charity they have taken to their hearts and raised millions of pounds for over many years.

Recommendations, shared with us by lead opposition campaigner Cllr Elwyn Vaughan and included in the engagement process over the past year’s final report, are giving the green light to close the Welshpool and Caernarfon bases in favour of one new base in North East Wales.

“Despite claims to be listening, they have ignored the reality on the ground and is a disgrace how the whole thing has been handled,” fumed Cllr Vaughan.

The recommendations come at the end of what the report calls “the culmination of an extensive review of the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS)”.

Scant consolation for Montgomeryshire is a recommendation that a new operational base is created that provides alternative road cover.

The report is likely to be rubber stamped by the bosses of each Welsh regional Health Board at a March 19 meeting. 

So, what is likely to happen? These are the four recommendations:

Recommendation 1: The Committee approves the consolidation of the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Services currently operating at Welshpool and Caernarfon bases into a single site in North Wales.

Recommendation 2: The Committee requests that the Charity secures an appropriately located operational base in line with the findings of this Report.

Recommendation 3: The Committee requires that a joint plan is developed by EMRTS and the Charity, that maintains service provision across Wales during the transition to a new base and that this plan is included within the Committee’s commissioning arrangements.

Recommendation 4: The Committee approves the development of a commissioning proposal for bespoke road-based enhanced and/or critical care services in rural and remote areas.

The charity can expect a fierce backlash from angry local residents with many already vowing to stop their monthly direct debits.

The charity said the operations review has never been about cost cutting, but the data provided by the specialists to back up their case has been questioned at every point, and accused of being flawed by campaigners.

You can read the final report with the recommendations here