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Ambulances can get to Stoke Mandeville in less than 20 minutes

12:08pm Friday 11th July 2008

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RE: "Councillors hit out at NHS's 17-20 minute travel time estimate between two hospitals" (Bucks Free Press print edition of June 13).

YOUR report on June 13 revealed that leading councillors branded an NHS claim that emergency ambulances will take 17 to 20 minutes to travel from Wycombe to Stoke Mandeville Hospital as "amazing" and "unbelievable".

For the record, here are some facts in the form of two recent examples that prove this claim is entirely possible: On June 8, my ten-week-old daughter was transferred from Wycombe to Stoke Mandeville Hospital with suspected meningitis. The door-to-door ambulance journey took just 15 minutes.

Some two weeks later we were again transported by ambulance - this time from home in High Wycombe to Stoke Mandeville Hospital. This journey also took less than 20 minutes.

In addition, it may reassure your readers to know that every aspect of our care from both hospitals and ambulance teams was utterly superb.

It is clear that ambulance staff, Wycombe A&E staff and the team working on the children's ward at Stoke Mandeville Hospital are compassionate and determined to ensure that the highest standards are maintained.

Kim Pearce, Lime Avenue, High Wycombe


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gurney, high wycombe says...
11:18pm Sat 12 Jul 08

what sort of parent times an ambulance journey when their child is so sick???and why are they happy for their child to be moved???my son had meningitus at 10weeks 16 years ago and was VERY WELL CARED FOR AT OUR LOCAL HOSPITAL!!if he was moved I would of been very angry.Lets hope this lady is happy to have her next baby their abd any other health problems her children have at stoke!!

tony, says...
4:54pm Sun 13 Jul 08

Sorry... I can't believe door 2 door in 15 minutes.
the distance between the 2 is 15.5 miles, most of which is either poor quality or residential i.e. 30mph limit (I do know ambulances can go over 30 WHEN safe to)this means you have to AVERAGE 60mph to make the journey.
Sorry, no way will I ever believe that trip can be done SAFELY in that time, if they do do it in 15-20 minutes its only a matter of time before we hear of an ambulance accident..... (distance obtained via this link... http://www.multimap.
com/directions/?qs_1
=HP11+2TT&countryCod
e_1=GB&qs_2=HP21+8AL
&countryCode_2=GB&mo
de=driving&optimizeF
or=quickest#map=51.7
1317,-0.76421|11|4

PlasticineMan, Marlow says...
6:31pm Sun 13 Jul 08

I am very pleased that all worked out fine for Kim and baby daughter despite what must have been a VERY fast ride in an ambulance. as pointed out in an another comment the distance is 15.3 miles. 15 mins journey time means therefore 60mph all the way with no stops. If any stops were encountered this speed would have to increase in direct proportion to the time lost. I guess 70 - 80 mph at times were reached. Lucky no one was killed this time - that would be down to the commensurate skill of our ambulance men (but even they admit it is extremely difficult to carry out any trauma treatment in the back of a fast moving vehicle! Also it is not surprising that Kim's daughter received first class service from the 1st line workers in the NHS. They too are true professionals - it is the management of the NHS that lets them and us down. They chase unrealistic targets to show how 'good' they are and lose sight of their 'Raison D'etre' - which is to serve the local community and to take notice of what the local community wants. We do not want a high speed ambulance ride to Stoke when we could be treated/stabilised at Wycombe and, once stabilised, have a quieter, safer trip to a specialist hospital.
What sort of travel times would there be for the same trip when all traffic has been diverted off of the M40 due to an incident. The whole area becomes grid locked! Ambulances can't fly yet and Helicopters are few and far between and cost a lot of money. Money maybe better spent on local care?

rbadenoch, High Wycombe says...
7:36pm Sun 13 Jul 08

My wife and I both travelled by car today (a Sunday) to see how long the journey would take us between Wycombe hospital and Stoke Mandeville. It took us 26 minutes, on very quiet Sunday evening roads. Quite frankly the idea of an ambulance having to make that journey under normally busy conditions, whilst looking after a potentially critically ill patient, appalls us. My wife had a very serious condition requiring urgent surgical attention four years ago, and we were lucky enough to have access to the right team at Wycombe. I couldn't agree more with the previous respondent who points out, quite rightly, that for an ambulance to cover 15.5 miles of often slow roads in 15 minutes, then it can only be a matter of time before a serious road accident occurs. Once again, the bean-counters and bureaucrats have ridden rough-shod over the feelings and needs of local people and consigned common sense to the rubbish bin.

Gail Robinson, says...
8:54am Mon 14 Jul 08

You drivers are very lucky. My daughter was admitted to Stoke Mandeville 2 weeks ago, for a week. Every day it took us 2 hours to travel there and 2 hours to travel back, by bus and the cost was £20 per day.
I personally am so glad that I am not a young person, for their lives, in many prospects, scares me!!
I find it hard to believe we live in 2008. It is what I imagined it to be in the early 1900's !!!

nick1042, Aylesbury says...
4:32pm Tue 15 Jul 08

This is rubbish
I live in Aylesbury, used to live in Wycombe, there is no way you can do the journey from hospital to hospital in 15 minutes, it is impossible!

sportsturf, Marlow says...
2:18am Thu 17 Jul 08

i agree about the timing of this journey.. it cant be done reasonably in 15 minutes, i got told by a paramedic, that with blues and twos going it took him 40 minutes to complete...some one is pulling our leg with this 20 minute stuff

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