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PLP: Where is West End ambulance?

promise to provide one And Opposition politicians said that Government's failure to keep their promises showed how low the West End ranks in the United Bermuda Party's eyes.

But new Health Minister Clarence Terceira said he will make inquiries.

Sandys North MP Dennis Lister said he was disappointed at the failure to put an ambulance at Port Royal.

"We now have the Fire substation at Port Royal and there needs to be another use for the facility to cater to the emergency medical needs of the community,'' he said. "Port Royal is an ideal location to house an emergency service which would mean that we would have a quicker and more immediate response to the West End of the Island.'' Mr. Lister said the West End had been concerned about emergency services before the Port Royal Fire Station was set up.

"Our feeling was that if Government was going to construct a purpose built Fire Station it should be able to handle our emergency needs as well.

"Government discussed this with us and we all agreed that it needed to be done.'' His Sandys North colleague Eugene Cox concurred.

"We were concerned that with all the activity in the West End in the form of businesses, cruise ships, housing and schools, if there was a problem the wait from Paget could be too long,'' he said.

"I can remember way back as long as the 80s that we suggested during the building of Lefroy House that it could be made an acceptable place but nothing much has happened.

"(Government) has a habit of waxing eloquent where they say much but tell you very little.'' On March 3, 1995, Tourism Minister and MP for Southampton West David Dodwell, speaking during the debate on the 1995-96 estimates for the Ministry of Management Services, promised that the West End would soon have its own ambulance.

At the time PLP Sandys South MP Walter Lister praised the move because he said the west end needed the service.

And Mr. Dodwell said the ambulance would be located at the Port Royal Fire Station.

Bermuda Fire Service personnel with a paramedic, would answer the calls first instead of hospital staff.

Currently, an ambulance from King Edward VII in Paget answers the calls to the West End.

One year earlier in 1994 then Health Minister Quinton Edness said that plans for a West End ambulance were moving ahead.

So far none of these promises has led to any action. Mr. Dodwell said that he did not know what the latest information was concerning the ambulance issue and referred a Royal Gazette reporter to Health Minister Clarence Terceira.

However all of this perceived inactivity has Mr. Lister concerned. He said: "Two years ago Mr. Dodwell promised that the ambulance was on its way. Well it must have taken a wrong turn because it hasn't reached Somerset from Paget yet.''