Ref. 29588-13THE vicar of Shrivenham has attacked the red tape holding up a scheme designed improve the village's ambulance service.

The Rev Richard Hancock, the vicar of Shrivenham, Watchfield and Bourton, has described his parish as an emergency service no-man's land.

Currently, Oxfordshire Ambulance Service serves the village, despite most emergency cases being taken to Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

Wiltshire Ambulance Service had been expected to start serving the Shrivenham area in January but ambulance bosses say they have to recruit staff and buy vehicles before Wiltshire takes over responsibility from Oxfordshire, which may not happen until the summer.

The closest Oxfordshire ambulance station to Shrivenham is in Witney 14 miles away while in Wiltshire the closest is five miles away in Swindon.

Mr Hancock, of St Andrew's Church, said: "I am fed up with the situation as it is at the moment. I feel I am now personally involved in the problem."

Last June, Mr Hancock's wife, Kate, 34 was working in the vicarage greenhouse watering tomato plants when she tripped.

Her hand and arm went through one of the glass panes shattering and cutting veins and arteries up her arm.

"I was putting my arm under pressure but I was losing so much blood I was beginning to feel very faint," she said.

"Fortunately Richard was there with a couple of parishioners and they went to call on our next-door neighbours for help.

"The ambulance took 25 minutes to get here but the neighbour, who is a doctor, managed to treat me.

"If it had happened 10 minutes later, Richard would have gone out. I doubt I could have waited for 25 minutes without passing out."

In hospital Mrs Hancock had to have a five-hour operation to stop the bleeding.

For Mr Hancock the incident was the beginning of a worrying trend.

Earlier this week a teenager suffered an epileptic fit. An ambulance was called but did not arrive for more than an hour.

Mr Hancock said: "Shrivenham seems a no-man's land for the emergency services but the police or fire services don't seem to have a problem getting here from Wiltshire or Oxfordshire so why don't the ambulances have the same system?

"I would hate to imagine what would happen if we had a serious incident here, particularly with all the scientific work going on at the military college."

Melanie Pickett, 42, from Bourton, is also appealing to the get the county ambulance services to serve the area.

Her partner Trevor Skuse, 50, died in January following a heart attack.

"When he started getting pains down his arms we called an ambulance," she said. "It took 45 minutes to get here, but when it turned up, a second arrived so we had one from Wiltshire and one from Oxfordshire. But Trevor had died 20 minutes after we called for the ambulance.

"I don't blame anyone I just think if the ambulance had arrived earlier he might have had a better chance of survival. I just hope it does not happen to any one else in this area."

Ros Hartley, the director of primary care and commissioning for Swindon Primary Care Trust, said: "We hope to be able to undertake the transfer of Shrivenham to Wiltshire by the summer.

"We plan to provide a dedicated ambulance vehicle and crew for that area.

"We hope to transfer as early as possible and try and improve the service and response."

Anthony Osborne