Have your say

Consultation is under way on proposals for a huge reorganisation of ambulance cover across the East Midlands. While the closure of Newark’s Queens Road ambulance station will be part of that, East Midlands Ambulance Service says services will not suffer.

Stations are to be closed and replaced by a small number of hubs and around 130 standby points.

The key is where ambulance crews serving our area will respond from.

The potential for serious incidents on the A1 or A46 speaks for itself, but that is not where the main concentration of population is.

An ambulance in an A1 layby at North Muskham, for instance, or somewhere down the A46 will offer nothing like the reassurance of a presence in the heart of the town.

The MP, Mr Patrick Mercer, favours ambulances based on the Newark Hospital site.

The chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council’s northern health scrutiny committee, Mrs Sue Saddington, supports standby points at North Muskham and Farndon, but with a base also in Newark itself, possibly at the police station.

Public meetings are to be held as part of the consultation. Newark is a big enough town — and still growing — to be entitled to host one of them.

EMAS says this is a genuine consultation so if you feel there should be ambulance provision in the heart of Newark, say so.

If you would prefer it at the police station or at the hospital, say so.

Local people have sometimes felt short-changed by previous public consultations on health and other matters.

EMAS should take the opportunity to show it is prepared to listen and respond to the concerns, opinions and ideas of local people.