GSLP LIBS UNDERSTAND GOVERNMENT TO BUY THREE AMBULANCES

" ordered three new ambulances for the GHA "

"This announcement totally vindicates the statements made by the Opposition in recent weeks over the appalling condition of our ambulance fleet "

The GSLP Liberal Opposition understands that the Gibraltar Government has finally ordered three new emergency ambulances for the GHA fleet. Our information is that the order has been placed with Rock Motors for three vehicles at the cost of £110,000 each and they should be in service in around 16 weeks time.

This announcement totally vindicates the statements made by the Opposition in recent weeks over the appalling condition of our ambulance fleet after the issue was raised directly by the ambulance crews. However, because the Minister for Health has delayed in signing the order documents, Gibraltarians are at the mercy of the present vehicles. Not only are these not road worthy, having failed their MOTs at the very moment the Minister was insisting they were road worthy, but they are not fit for the lifesaving task they have to perform on a daily basis. One vehicle even had to receive a jump start from another ambulance after it failed to start when leaving a Spanish hospital.

The decision of the Minister for Health, Yvette Del Agua, to finally act is better late than never but it remains to be seen whether it saves her seat should she stand again for Parliament.

The belated ordering of the ambulances also makes a nonsense of the claim in the GSD’s glossy pre-election brochure of a “new, professional emergency ambulance service” when currently this simply does not exist, has not existed for many months nor will it be in place until next year.”