AMBULANCE crews are worried about the safety of patients after the move of emergency surgery services to Aylesbury, says a driver.

A Two Shires Ambulance Service worker has claimed to the Free Press staff are driving old highly-mileaged ambulances, with journey times set to increase.

However the Two Shires Ambulance Service, which has a three star rating, says it has new vehicles in place and supports the move of emergency surgery services and major trauma to Aylesbury. But the Two Shires driver told the Free Press the Wycombe ambulance station, in West End Road, High Wycombe, would struggle because of ageing vehicles and lack of staff including paramedics.

The ambulance source said: "The ambulance service is falling to pieces. It is in a state. If the public found out they would be shocked."

The emergency surgery move would mean almost all calls ending at Aylesbury after guidelines were issued to staff last week, said the driver.

Some staff have been upset by the change. An email from a shift officer seen by the Free Press suggests drivers were suprised about the A&E change, which could affect patients' treatment. It read: "Crews will be travelling to Stoke, Wexham, Reading, Hemel, Watford and Oxford. As you can imagine this will affect our job times considerably and the health and safety of the patients."

However, Two Shires said staff were kept updated.

The source added: "We cannot use discretion. We would assume a patient has broken a bone or maybe needs surgery. That will mean a lot of trips to Stoke. This would lengthen turn round times for crews which can mean one job takes up to two hours."

The ambulance source said the change has caused problems with patients who did not want to go to Stoke Mandeville. The driver added that ambulances were failing. Some had more than 100,000 miles on the clock and on average only three were fit to use. While on a call on August 20, an ambulance was allegedly sent on an emergency transfer without a working radio. The driver said: "If anything had gone wrong you would have been stranded. It was very dangerous."

A shift officer raised the matter to management in an email which said: "This is fairly representative of the state of affairs with motors at present."

It was also claimed the service at High Wycombe did not have enough paramedics for each crew.

A spokesman for Two Shires said: "The changes brought in by the Buckinghamshire NHS Trust are for the overall benefit of patients. Two Shires supports any initiatives that will improve patient care and provide improvements to the way we deliver our services."

The Free Press asked Two Shires how many road worthy ambulances serve Wycombe. Two Shires said the service could cope with the move to Aylesbury as it has a fleet of 22 ambulances to cover the Mid and South Bucks along with immediate response vehicles.

A spokesman added: "All of our vehicles have a full and comprehensive service history which ensure their safety and ability to transport our patients."

The service added that some of its older vehicles exceeded 100,000 miles but that vehicles were serviced every 7,500 miles. Two Shires has also purchased five additional vehicles for the mid and south Bucks area. Wycombe ambulance station has 34 staff including 12 paramedics, said the spokesman but it would recruit more.

"Two Shires has an ongoing recruitment programme across Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire to ensure we continue to operate as a three star trust," said the spokesman. Two Shires said it was investigating the alleged transfer with a faulty radio on August 20 but would not comment until it is completed.