IF you live outside the Wyre Forest area, you might think that the crisis over night-time ambulance cover has nothing to do with you.

In a direct sense, that will be the case for most people.

But, indirectly, it affects everyone for whom the service is like an insurance policy, a thing of comfort when you don't call upon it, a necessity in moving you from trauma to recovery when you do.

The potential danger - tragedy - of the Kidderminster situation is so apparent that it beggars belief that it's been allowed to happen.

Once again, Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor is absolutely right to regard it as an example of the county health shake-up in ruins.

When Kidderminster General's A&E department was open, the public was served by two emergency vehicles, all day.

Was that too many? If not, what have the residents of that part of Worcestershire done for their lives to be downgraded to second-class?

They're questions which the county ambulance trust's acting chief executive, Linda Millinchamp, would do well to ponder. And here's another.

Would she be happy to live in an area in which the service couldn't cope if, say, two heart attack victims fell from ladders at the same time, after hours? Would anyone?

Eighteen months ago, as the trust contemplated cutting Worcester's night cover, we mused that no sane person would leave their home or possessions uninsured.

Why, then, risk the lives of those who need an ambulance in the middle of the night?

Our answer hasn't changed.