MP Robin Walker has pledged to write to a 'broken' paramedic who issued a desperate plea for health chiefs to save Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The paramedic, who wished not to be named, yesterday sent an open letter to Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to express her concerns about ambulance backlogs outside A&E.

In the letter, she says Mr Walker twice failed to respond to her emails about the issue, which she sent in January 2019 and July 2021 respectively.

However, he disputes those claims, and says that while he may not have replied to the first email personally, she did receive a reply from his office.

He said: "I don't think it's fair to say she didn't receive a reply to her first email. 

"I accept that it said I would be in touch further, but she did actually receive a reply from my office setting out action I was taking on the issue.

"If she didn't get a follow up letter from the first instance then I will write to her and I will apologise.

"But she did get a reply from my office which detailed the action we were taking on the issue, which was campaigning to expand the hospital."

Offering an explanation as to why the second email was missed, Mr Walker says it was sent to the wrong address. 

"The subsequent email was sent to a 'no reply' address that was linked to a previous version of my website," he continued.

"It was a contact form that would send out an automatic response to make sure you've provided your details as a constituent.

"So I would dispute the claim that we didn't reply to her, we did reply to the one we received and we didn't receive the second one.

"I absolutely take the issue seriously, and I would have responded personally to her second email had I seen it."

Speaking on the issues raised by the paramedic in her letter to Sajid Javid, Mr Walker said he is "constantly pushing" for improvements at the hospital.

"I am regularly meeting with the department of health ministers to express the case for getting on with expansion at the hospital to address some of the pressure points raised.

"The broader issues that have been raised in the letter - ambulance waits and a lack of beds - are things that I have been campaigning for many years, and we have had upgrades.

"The number of beds and the number of staff at the hospital have been increased over the past few years.

"Of course we are also in the process of upgrading the A&E, which has been a long-running campaign of mine.

"I was actually due to be meeting with the hospitals minister this week to discuss this and to keep pushing for progress.

"So it is something that is front of mind for me and something that I am constantly pushing on."

You can read the full letter sent by the paramedic, here.