At 2pm this afternoon (Friday 17th March), Michael Fabricant received
petitions signed by 2,500 Staffordshire people against the take-over of
the Staffordshire Ambulance Service into a larger regional service. "I
will personally take these petitions to Westminster on Monday and they
will be presented to Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary. Both she
and Tony Blair claim that the review into a regional ambulance service
has not yet been completed and options are open. If there is any shred
of truth in what they are saying and this isn’t a done deal, I hope that
all the arguments presented to her and this petition will convince the
Health Secretary not to permit this take over. The Staffordshire
Ambulance Service has the best response rates to 999 calls in Europe and
this is shown by the statistics. In Staffordshire there are 231
successful resuscitations from heart attack compared with just 48 in the
west midlands per million population. Staffordshire lives will be lost
unnecessarily if this take-over goes ahead.

"Instead of this ill thought out plan, the Government should be helping
the West Midlands Ambulance Service with resources to try and achieve
the successes of the Staffordshire Ambulance service and its excellent
paramedic crews" Michael adds.

(left), left to right: Cllr Michael Oates, Cllr Tony Thompson,
Michael Fabricant, and Andy Chappell
(right), left to right: Cllr Tony Thompson, Michael Fabricant,
Mr Peter Maxwell, Cllr Michael Oates, and Andy Chappell

Three petitions were handed to Michael Fabricant outside the Ambulance
station in Lichfield. Cllr Tony Thompson, Leader of Lichfield City
Council presented a petition with 1055 names; Mr Andy Chappell from
Colton has collected 1100 names; and Cllr Michael Oates from Tamworth
Borough Council has collected around 400 names.