EXCLUSIVE: Number of ambulances based in Rugby to be cut from two to one in March

This newspaper received information pertaining to the cut, and a spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has this afternoon, February 17, confirmed it.

The spokesman said: “We can confirm that we will be moving one of the two ambulances based at Rugby to the Coventry Hub by the end of March 2020.

"It follows a review of the ambulance provision in Warwickshire."

Responding to concerns over the town only having one ambulance based in it, the WMAS spokesman said: "For the six-month period from 1st August 2019 to 31st January 2020, 84.1 per cent of cases in the town and surrounding area were not attended by vehicles based at the town’s ambulance station.

"The reason the Rugby ambulances attend so few cases in the town is that once they transport a patient to A&E they will be tasked to the next case, even if that is not in Rugby as we will always send the closest vehicle to each case.

"Where a vehicle starts or finishes its shift really doesn’t matter; what matters is whether we are able to respond to patients in a timely manner; we are consistently the highest performing ambulance service in the country.

"There are benefits for both staff and patients of basing an additional vehicle in Coventry: it means the vehicle will always be fully prepared at the start of each shift and means that the crew will not have to take time away from clinical duties to return the vehicle to the hub each shift for cleaning and restocking as they do currently.

"A team of mechanics and vehicle preparation staff clean, restock and service the ambulances so that they are immediately available for staff to respond to incidents.

"In addition, our hubs have dedicated learning areas for staff, better facilities for downtime and an operations manager on site 24 hours a day."

More information and reaction as we get it.