Dozens of ambulance stations have closed in the Health Secretary’s backyard, research reveals tonight.
Freedom of information requests found 57 ambulance stations closed in the West Midlands over the past seven years.
But a total of just six were shut in the entire rest of the country for trusts which provided data, according to the Liberal Democrats.
The party asked England’s 12 ambulance NHS trusts how many stations they had shut since 2015.
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Nine trusts replied - and of those, eight closed a total of six stations.
However, West Midlands said it shut 18 stations in 2017, 15 in 2018, 12 across 2019/20 and 12 last year.
The revelation will be an embarrassment to Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who has been the MP for Bromsgrove since 2010.
With voters due to go to the polls in council elections on Thursday, the Lib Dems called for a national Community Ambulance Fund so health bosses can reopen ambulance stations, cancel planned closures and speed-up ambulance response times, which in England are the longest since new targets were introduced in 2017.
The party’s North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan said: “The extremely high number of stations closed in comparison to the rest of the country shows that the West Midlands has been completely taken for granted by this Government.
“Almost everyday residents get in touch with me and I hear stories of people who have waited far too long for an ambulance.
“For this to happen in the Health Secretary’s backyard is either sheer ignorance or an utter failure of leadership.
“Sajid Javid needs to get his own house in order - he needs to review the closure of ambulance stations, reopen stations where they are needed in our area, and invest in a Community Ambulance Fund.
“We simply cannot go on like this.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said “Response times are affected by various factors, and so we’re taking a whole-system approach.
"We have invested £55million for ambulance trusts to boost staff numbers in control rooms and on the frontline.
“We are growing the NHS workforce with record numbers of staff including over 4,200 more doctors and over 12,100 more nurses to help ease the pressure on emergency staff.”
West Midlands Ambulance Trust was contacted for comment.
