PARAMEDICS took 15 minutes to reach a police officer fatally injured in a car crash because the nearest crew was on a meal break, it emerged yesterday.

PC Joe Carroll died when his car overturned on the A69 near Corbridge, in Northumberland, in April.

Yesterday, the North-East Ambulance Service NHS Trust confirmed that the Hexham ambulance had not been sent to the scene because the crew was on a meal break. The nearest alternative crew, based in Prudhoe, had been sent.

Although the ambulance arrived within the target 15 minutes and there is nothing to suggest the delay would have made any difference to the outcome of the accident, it is the latest in a string of similar incidents during a dispute between unions and management.

Under national arrangements introduced two years ago, paramedics are not paid for meal breaks and, as a result, are not called out to emergency calls during break times.

Elsewhere in the country, employers and unions have reached agreement to allow staff to respond during breaks, but attempts to reach a deal in the North-East NHS trust area have reached stalemate.

Peter Atkinson, Conservative MP for Hexham, said: "It is time there was a solution to this, otherwise it will imperil lives.

"Clearly, it must be resolved and if it is not resolved shortly, I will have to ask ministers to get involved."