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Westmount Road should be widened in parts and the hairpin smoothed out to create safe passage for ambulances accessing the proposed £800m new hospital, the head of the service has said.
Chief Ambulance Officer Peter Gavey shared his professional opinion at a planning inquiry into whether a new 'health campus' should be built at Overdale.
Addressing the issue of how the site should be accessed, Mr Gavey said he supported the project team’s proposal to widen, straighten and smooth Westmount Road to make it easier for vehicles to go up and down.
Giving an ambulance perspective, he said: “The current road network on Westmount causes more of a problem for us once you get to the first left-hand bend as you head towards the bowls club, and up around the large hairpin at the top.
“Our aim is to get to a scene safely rather than quickly. More often than not, your speed is gained in passing vehicles, and the use of the sirens and lights are to ensure that people know you’re coming and are able to pull out of the way.
“What the road doesn’t currently allow for is any access to pass vehicles past the bowling club to the top of the hill in a safe matter.
“We would expect an increase in traffic once the site is open, therefore, ambulances would not pass each other on the road, not very easily anyway.”
Pictured: Chief Ambulance Officer Peter Gavey gives evidence to the hospital planning inquiry at St. Paul's Centre on Thursday.
He added: “If it was a blue-light journey, it makes [passing] more difficult if you cannot see by line of sight the vehicles that are approaching from both directions.
“With the current layout, you need to go over the white line in most circumstances, certainly coming down the hill.
“Our preference would be, regardless of the active travel corridor, the roads in some parts there needs to widened, so we support the plan to extend and widen it.”
A sharp bend also presented a hazard to crews who may be standing in the back of an ambulance performing treatment, he said.
Mr Gavey told the inquiry, which is being overseen by independent planning inspector Philip Staddon, that the current arrangements for ambulances at the General Hospital were far from ideal.
Video: The Thursday morning session of the planning inquiry, when Mr Gavey appeared.
“From our own staff experiences, we have daily issues around the entrances, the egress to the site, the parking and it is worth noting that, over the years, there have been a number of incidents, where vehicles have come into contact with pedestrians,” he said.
“Some work has been done to remedy that but, at the moment, all of the sites at the Hospital require us to reverse up a hill.”
He added: “The new hospital offers us a safer route of access and egress in and around the site. From the extensive discussions we’ve had with the project team, it gives us the ability to drive in and out, and really reducing the number of times that other vehicles come into contact with our emergency and patient-transport services.”
The ambulance chief said that, in 2021, the service transported around 7,700 patients to the hospital in its seven emergency and one ‘intermediate’ ambulance, with the majority of calls to the town area.
He added that drivers rarely used sirens after 23:00 and since he had been in post since 2013, he had received no complaints about use of sirens or lights at night.
The inquiry is due to end on Friday, although Monday is earmarked as a ‘reserve’ day should the programme run over.
You can watch this morning's session HERE.
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