BY MARK McKELVEY

Highlighting a recent example when the door of an ambulance fell off its hinges en route to the Erne Hospital from Omagh, West Tyrone DUP MLA Tom Buchanan has expressed grave concern about the general standard of ambulances in the North.

At last week's meeting of the Assembly Health Committee with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Trust, it was revealed that many ambulances are over six years old and have more than 150,000 miles on the clock, a revelation also confirmed by the Health Minister to a series of written questions in the Assembly.

Mr Buchanan, who is a Health Committee member said, "Recently in West Tyrone, we had an ambulance en route from the Tyrone County Hospital to Enniskillen with a sick pensioner on board, which had to stop at Dromore owing to the door falling off its hinges.

"To have ambulances in circulation in such a state is unacceptable and one the minister must urgently address. This again points to failure on his part, who, on one hand

presides over the removal of acute services from rural Hospitals in the name of Developing Better Services and then fails to replace old and decaying ambulances, plunging the people of those areas into further crisis and greater health inequalities.

"It is staggering to think that some emergency ambulances have between 150,000 and 312,000 miles registered on their clocks," said Mr Buchanan.

"This information raises serious concerns about the capacity of our ambulance fleet to respond to emergencies such as road traffic accidents and house fires in a satisfactory and speedy manner.

"I am therefore calling on the Minister to put an urgent action plan in place to address this very serious issue and not to allow a further health crisis develop under his watch."