RM JOHNSON, of Green Park Way, Chillington, writes:

I write with further reference to the incident reported in your newspaper regarding the one-hour plus wait for an ambulance to attend to a five-year-old with a serious leg injury in Loddiswell.

The ambulance service trust in its published response to my letter continues to elude the true position of its changes and reductions of local emergency ambulances in Kingsbridge and other areas.

The simple truth is one, out of a previous two, dual-manned emergency ambulances, has been withdrawn from service, in day time hours, and substituted by a 'single manned' rapid response car at Kingsbridge.

This vehicle does not have the capability of transporting a patient to hospital. Therefore a 50 per cent reduction of the service has been made, which the trust fail to admit or explain.

Ashburton has suffered a 100 per cent reduction as no dual- manned frontline ambulance is based there now.

Similarly, with no full disclosure made by the trust.

I am informed that personnel manning the rapid response cars can regularly wait on scene of an incident up to three hours for the arrival of dual-manned ambulance to take patients to hospital.

The 'sophisticated planning tool' plainly failed a five-year- old miserably and that's another story worthy of further serious scrutiny.

A second class service to our rural areas and population is unworthy and an unfitting description for a 'trust'.