Trust Backs Call To Move Market
Thursday, 25th March 2004.
The ambulance service has backed calls for Haverhill's market to be moved, unless access for emergency vehicles can be guaranteed.
Margaret Marks, co-ordinator of Haverhill's first Responder Scheme, last week called for the Saturday market to be shifted back to the Market Square, after an incident where stallholders refused to let an ambulance through.
Matthew War, spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Trust, said paramedics answering a 999 call in the town had to walk 25 metres to the patient because their access was blocked, and that the people who had blocked the way refused to move.
Mr Ware said the service had approached St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which had agreed to put round a flier to all stall holders stating that they must leave access open to emergency vehicles.
He said: "Obviously any delay at all in getting an ambulance to a potentially seriously ill patient could prove fatal, and it is not in the best interests of the patient to be carried an extra and unnecessary distance to the ambulance on a stretcher.
"If stall holders cannot guarantee our vehicles access through the High Street on a Saturday then we would question the wisdom of holding the market in that location."
Margaret Marks, co-ordinator of Haverhill's first Responder Scheme, last week called for the Saturday market to be shifted back to the Market Square, after an incident where stallholders refused to let an ambulance through.
Matthew War, spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Trust, said paramedics answering a 999 call in the town had to walk 25 metres to the patient because their access was blocked, and that the people who had blocked the way refused to move.
Mr Ware said the service had approached St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which had agreed to put round a flier to all stall holders stating that they must leave access open to emergency vehicles.
He said: "Obviously any delay at all in getting an ambulance to a potentially seriously ill patient could prove fatal, and it is not in the best interests of the patient to be carried an extra and unnecessary distance to the ambulance on a stretcher.
"If stall holders cannot guarantee our vehicles access through the High Street on a Saturday then we would question the wisdom of holding the market in that location."
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