PEOPLE living in some of the most remote parts of the region made an emotional plea to ambulance chiefs to protect their emergency services.

Residents of Teesdale and Weardale, in County Durham, urged the North East Ambulance Service to keep dedicated crews in both dales at a board meeting in Stanhope, yesterday. (Thursday, February 26)

The pleas came amidst growing concern about the strain on the ambulance service, its response times and staffing changes - though bosses deny the service is in crisis and say it meets response targets.

Durham county councillor for Weardale, Anita Savory, said the family of a grandfather who died after waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance will never know if the service could have done more to save him.

On Saturday, January 3 the 49-year-old had chest pains so his wife called 111 and was told an ambulance would be sent to their home with a response time of eight minutes.

He then collapsed on the kitchen floor and his wife called 999 and an ambulance was asked for again, followed by a request for the air ambulance.

Both reached him at the same time and treated him for 20 minutes but were unable to save his life.

Cllr Savory said both dales should have a dedicated crew but appear to have been unmanned at the time of the emergency call as the one attending was the Barnard Castle crew which had been sent from the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

She said: “There will never be an opportunity to repair the loss and grief of a husband, father and grandfather.

“Where were all the ambulances on Saturday, January 3?

“Why should we be left without an ambulance?

“As this family struggle with their grief I request adequate ambulance provision to reassure the people who work, live and visit Weardale that there is ambulance provision.”

Joy Urwin, a member of the Durham Dales Ambulance Monitoring Team , said the tragedy echoed a similar case in 2012.

She said: “You are not learning from mistakes.

“Families are told time and again ‘we will learn from it’ but I don’t think you are, that is the saddest part.”

She also asked for more data about ambulance call-outs to be shared with the team and asked board members to consider how isolated dales communities are as they drove home following Thursday’s meeting.

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer, said serving rural areas is a challenge so close links are forged with other health services so people get the most appropriate help needed.

He said directing people to GPs, for example, could free up paramedics to deal with the 10 per cent of calls that are life threatening.

Chief executive Yvonne Ormston said: “We are keen to work with communities, it is different in each area and we want to work with you to find different types of solutions.”