STOURPORT'S ambulance hub closed on the weekend following a review of community ambulance station (CAS) points in Worcestershire.

West Midlands Ambulance service has said that closing “rarely-used” bases would not impact on ambulance coverage or response times in their host towns.

As part of the review, the service said: "It is now rare, if ever, that the crews who work at the CAS points ever get back to the site other than for their meal break or at the end of their shift.

"Like the crews based at the hubs, they literally go from one emergency to the next, 24 hours a day; they are no longer sat on a station anywhere in the region waiting for a call.

"Therefore, one of the questions we are duty bound to consider is whether it is appropriate for the trust to spend precious funds on a building that is rarely used when these could instead be spent on additional staff and vehicles; the things that save lives?"

For the first six months of the year, there were 39,177 cases in the Stourport area, with ambulances based at the Stourport CAS attending just 1,161 of them - 3.0 per cent.

The other 97 per cent were attended by ambulances from stations including Worcester, Bromsgrove, Dudley and Hollymoor.

Staff from the Stourport hub have been able to choose where they are now based, with most going to Worcester, and others going to Bromsgrove and Dudley.