Kenilworth ambulance base at Jubilee House gone

And according to town councillors, there was next to no communication from West Midlands Ambulance Service Foundation Trust about the closure of the response post last week.

But a spokesman for the trust defended the closure, saying response posts come and go often and the service to Kenilworth would not be compromised.

Cllr Dave Shilton (Con, Park Hill) said: “I feel very let down and disgusted. After providing an excellent service to this town and its surrounding villages, they’ve pulled out of Jubilee House without saying a word.

“I was over the moon when they moved here in 2013 because it’s an essential service.

“If they had talked to us maybe we could have persuaded them to stay. I for one will miss them and this town will miss them. But there was no communication whatsoever and the people of Kenilworth deserve better.”

Communications director for the trust Murray MacGregor said: “If people are concerned about this, they shouldn’t be. Response posts come and go based on how the population develops.

“The nearest response post will be in Coventry which is five miles away, but in the grand scheme of things it could be a lot further away.”

In a further statement, a spokesman for the trust said: “The trust has committed to having a paramedic on all ambulance vehicles, the only trust in the country to do this.

“As paramedic numbers have increased, the trust has been reducing the number of rapid response vehicles and increased the number of ambulances it has. This has led to a reduction in the number of response posts as they are no longer required.

“The change means when patients need to be transported they are waiting less time for an ambulance to arrive as the first vehicle to arrive is an ambulance. This can only been a good thing for patients.

“We are making these changes in a planned and staged way so that we can monitor the impact the changes are having.”