news story

12th November 2008

New Ambulance Data Shows Lives Will Be Lost Through Frenchay Closure

New figures supplied to Steve Webb MP from the Great Western Ambulance Trust show that lives will be put at risk by the decision to close Frenchay, according to the Lib Dem MP.

The Northavon MP is concerned that people who live in areas to the North and East of South Gloucestershire will spend far longer getting to Southmead in an emergency compared with Frenchay – especially during the rush hour. He therefore asked the local Ambulance Trust for figures on the number of emergency calls last year from different parts of the area. The table shows the answer he got:

[Category A – ‘life threatening’

Category B – ‘serious’

Category C – ‘non-serious’]


Postcode: BS37 (eg Yate, Chipping Sodbury) - A: 1,010,  B: 1,072, C: 549

Postcode: BS36 (eg Frampton Cotterell, Westerleigh) - A: 414, B: 387, C: 228

Postcode: BS16 (eg Pucklechurch) - A: 2,315, B: 2,762, C: 1,409


TOTALS: A: 3,739, B: 4,221, C: 2,186


The figures show that in 2007 there were over 1,000 life-threatening emergency calls from the Yate area, over 400 from the Frampton Cotterell area, and well over 2,000 from the area around Pucklechurch, east of Bristol.

Even though these figures exclude more outlying areas (eg with GL12 postcodes), they show that last year there were altogether nearly 8,000 life-threatening or serious emergency calls from this part of South Gloucestershire which would have faced extended journey times as a result of the closure of Frenchay and the additional journey time to Southmead.

Commenting on the figures, Steve Webb said:

“Even with the present population of South Gloucestershire there are thousands of emergency calls from parts of the area that are a long journey from Southmead. This situation will get even worse if thousands more houses are built. These figures provide further evidence of the need to think again about the plan to close Frenchay Hospital”.