An ambulance in the east end would be more valuable than the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre, according to St George’s MP Kenneth Bascome.

Mr Bascome said the arguments surrounding the future of the facility had become more about politics than the well-being of the community.

“I believe that an ambulance would be more valuable in the east end than the Urgent Care Centre,” Mr Bascome said.

“The thing that I find most amusing is that they all wanted me to make a comment, then after I made a comment, they were all upset I didn’t make the comment they wanted me to make. I will stand by my convictions that I believe that an ambulance would be more important to the town and the community of St George than the urgent care facility. I will stand by that.

“If you were to fall over right now, I would call 911. The EMTs would respond and then wait for the ambulance to arrive. If the ambulance was in St George, in the time it takes the ambulance to come now you would be in the hospital.”

He said that when the news of the potential closure was first announced last October, his first course of action was to meet with Bermuda Hospitals Board CEO Venetta Symonds and her staff.

“In my discussions with her and a few of her support team, they convinced me that the expense of running that facility was totally outrageous,” he said. “I spoke to Ms Symonds and her staff before I came to any viewpoint.”

He said the issue rapidly degraded into political arguments, saying: “My personal opinion is that it became ‘Let’s see if we can embarrass the government’. It became completely out of hand.”

Along with an ambulance in the town, Mr Bascome said he was still fighting to bring a fire station back into the town along with a fully functioning police station.

Mr Bascome said that right now, the St George’s Police Station is only open around 12 hours a day.

“That has been my pet peeve over the past ten years, having a fully functioning police station,” Mr Bascome said. “We haven’t gotten to that stage yet but I continually speak to the Minister of Public Safety and encouraged him to speak to police and attempt to have this facility fully functioning. Having a police station creates a completely different behaviour pattern in the town.

“This is something that is constantly being asked of me. People want to know when we are going to get our own police station and I tell folks that Nandi Outerbridge and I are constantly speaking with the Minister in an attempt to cause him to realise that we need it.”

Noting the recent discussions about announced repairs to the swing bridge, Mr Bascome said: “When it’s convenient, people say it’s not an issue. Then they turn around and ask what happens when it gets stuck open?”

The MP also said that the town was working to remedy issues with its ageing sewage system.

“Fortunately for us there hasn’t been any major backfill in the last two and a half years and that is something that the Corporation is actively pursuing in an attempt to put a treatment plan in place,” he said.

“During the discussions with the former proposed developer [of the Club Med site, Carl Bazarian], it was hoped that the town sewage could be tied into the hotel sewage. Hopefully, in the near future as progress is made on that site something will be done.”

He said the Government had been very forthcoming with supporting the town but noted that previous Public Works Ministers Michael Weeks and Derrick Burgess had also supported the town when approached to do necessary upgrades to the infrastructure during their time in office.