NORTH Shropshire MP Helen Morgan is pressing for a review into the ambulance crisis in Shropshire ahead of a meeting with Health Minister Edward Agar on Wednesday.

Mrs Morgan is hoping the minister will commit to a Care Quality Commission review into ambulance services when he meets with Shropshire MPs.

She called the meeting as injured patients continue to face waits of up to 12 hours or more to be treated by paramedics in Shropshire, and is keen to work constructively with health organisations, MPs and the Government for solutions.

‘Serious incidents’ – requiring investigations at West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) – have more than doubled in the past year because of overwhelming pressure on paramedics.

Mrs Morgan said: “Pressure on our health services here in North Shropshire has been the number one issue raised by constituents since I was elected to represent the area.

“It is not fair that injured people should have to wait so long to be treated – and our paramedics, nurses and doctors do not deserve to be under such constant immense pressure.

“That’s why I called for a meeting with the Health Minister.

"I’m looking forward to meeting with him and working together to establish a plan to improve the situation for everyone in Shropshire.”

The Lib Dem MP is urging the Government to commit to passing a law which will publish ambulance waiting times by postcode.

The Ambulance Waiting Times Bill would reveal for the first time precisely how patients in Shropshire face different delays to people in urban areas.

It comes after 57 West Midlands Ambulance Service stations were shut in the past seven years, including four in Shropshire at Oswestry, Market Drayton, Bridgnorth and Craven Arms, which Mrs Morgan wants reversing.

Pressure on hospitals in Shropshire with emergency departments is contributing to the delays – with many ambulances stuck waiting to handover patients due to beds being blocked – and she is keen to work with the health minister to improve this situation.

She added that more than 34,000 hours of ambulance time was lost in April alone because of vehicles being stuck outside hospitals, a six-fold increase on April 2021, and one patient in the region was forced to wait 23 hours to be moved into hospital.