IN THE NEWS
350 PER CENT RISE IN SOUTH WEST TAXIS SENT TO CALLS INSTEAD OF AMBULANCES
More than 150 taxis were sent to emer- gency calls instead of ambulances to pick up patients in the South West last year, it has been revealed.
Andy Burhham, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said the South Western Ambulance Service (SWAS) has seen a 350 per cent rise in the number of taxis attending 999 calls. According to the West- ern Morning News, the figures were obtained by the party via a Free- dom of Information request showing 158 taxis attended 999 calls in the region in 2012/13, up from 35 occasions in 2009/10.
Mr Burnham also claimed other ambu- lance services are using police cars and retained firefighters to attend calls. SWAS is a giant single organisation covering more than 10,000 square miles. Last year it was enlarged following its acquisi- tion of neighbouring Great Western Ambu- lance Service.
Mr Burnham claimed his evidence showed the deepening crisis in accident and emer- gency (A&E) wards as ambulances become “trapped” at A&Es and unable to hand over patients.
He also urged Health Secretary Jeremy
Hunt to take action now to avoid the am- bulance hold-ups “engulfing” other emergency services. However, Mr Hunt accused his shadow of talking up a crisis that is not happening and said the coalition was hitting its targets, unlike the last Labour administration when Mr Burnham was Health Secretary. The trust said that just 66 patients have been transported in a taxi this year, and that it had been “misrepre- sented” by Labour. A spokesman said: “Taxis are only used to transport patients in a very small minority of cases where it is clini-
cally safe and approp- riate to do so. This would not occur in emergency or life threatening situations. The 66 patients that have been transported in a taxi this year have had minor injuries and ailments such as a cut finger or a sprained wrist, but have not been able to make any other transport arrangements themselves. “Taxis are only used in extreme circum- stances when demand on ambulance re- sources is exceptional and any patient offered a taxi will have been clinically asses- sed as safe to travel.” She added: “Like all ambulance trusts
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across the country, South Western Ambu- lance Service has also seen a significant increase in demand for its services on an annual basis. The loss of the non-emergency
Patient Transport Serv- ices to private pro- viders has also led to a number of patients requiring taxis to clinic appointments as the new services are established.”
YORK PHV DRIVER CLEARED OF RAPING TEENAGER
A private hire driver has been cleared of raping a teenage girl as he drove her home from her boyfriend’s house in York.
Darren Lester was unanimously found not guilty of rape and a sexual assault by a jury at York Crown Court last month. He had been accused of forcing himself on the 17-year-old after stop- ping in a country lane last November. Mr Lester, 52, from York, told the court during his two-and-a- half day trial that the teenager, whom he had never met before, had “forced” him into sex acts and he had gone ahead with them as he had been “100 per cent sure” that she consented.
The CPS had claimed he pinned the girl in her seat and tried to kiss her, then attacked her when she resisted. The jury was told Mr
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Lester had collected the girl from Wigginton after she had spent an evening with her boyfriend. Jurors were told she was “tipsy” but not drunk.
Summing up the defence case, barris- ter Nicholas de la Poer said people behave in unexpected ways and suggested the en- counter was fuelled by “alcohol and hor- mones”. He said the girl may have felt “crashing regret” afterwards. He said Mr Lester did not deny the encounter and conceded that it had happened consen- sually, which indicated he was telling the truth and was “enormously to his credit”. He said: “This is a court of law, not of morals - nobody is asking you to like him. The fact some- body has behaved badly does not mean they are not telling the truth.”
Before leaving to con-
sider their verdict, the jury heard from prose- cuting barrister Kitty Taylor, who said the fact Mr Lester conceded he willingly had a sexual encounter with the girl could indicate some- thing about his character. She said Mr Lester weaved truth with fantasy in his statement to police, saying: “What he did was take advantage of a young girl, push his luck and, when she said no, insisted.” Mmmm… Consensual or otherwise (on the passenger’s way home from her boyfriend’s?), is this the sort of behav- iour that is suitable for a licensed driver to main- tain his “fit and proper” status? Best not be found in that situation in the first place, surely… there are enough peo- ple out there crying ‘rape’ without placing oneself in a position to be in any way consid- ered guilty. - Ed.
PHTM JANUARY 2014
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