AMBULANCE staff in the county have hit back at what they call scaremongering on the Tonight with Trevor McDonald television programme.

Monday's programme suggested that the lives of patients are put at risk because a paramedics may not be sent to every incident. But West Midlands Ambulance Trust, which covers Worcestershire, said only 10 per cent of calls received are to life threatening conditions and at the other 90 per cent the skills of an emergency medical technician (EMT) are more than adequate. Where they are not, a paramedic, emergency care practitioner or doctor will almost always already have been sent.

Trust chief executive Anthony Marsh said to suggest that the ambulance service in the West Midlands is unsafe is nonsense and does a great dis-service to the work carried out by staff.

"Since the new trust was formed in July last year, a huge amount of effort has been put into working out what level of training our staff will require to provide an ambulance service fit for the 21st century," he said.

He said this year, 130 EMTs would be training to become paramedics.

"At present there are a handful of response cars staffed by EMTs, but by the end of the summer these extra paramedics will also ensure that all response vehicles operated by the trust will be staffed by paramedics."

He said that West Midlands Ambulance Ser-vice is one of only a few regional services that met all of its national performance targets.

"It is disappointing that the Tonight programme chose to attack NHS staff who work so hard to ensure that the patients comes first; there is little doubt that it will lead to misplaced anxiety for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We are committed to providing the best patient care," he said.