Air ambulance: Fears Welshpool closure could cost lives

A rugby player who was left paralysed after being crushed by a tree has said plans to close a rural air ambulance station could cost lives.

Rhys Lewis was working on a farm when the tree fell, breaking his back in 2014.

He said hearing the helicopter was a "huge relief" and wants plans to close a Powys base to be scrapped.

Wales Air Ambulance said the move would allow it to attend more than 500 extra emergencies a year.

Under the plans the air ambulance service site in Welshpool would close, with services centralised in north and south Wales.

Wales Air Ambulance also has bases in Cardiff, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, and Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, but it is not clear where in north Wales the Welshpool crews would move.

The service said analysis by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service showed the change could mean 583 more annual flights, including 26 in Powys.

But more than 9,000 people have signed a petition against the move, fearing it will lead to longer waits for help.

Mr Lewis, 32, who was paralysed from the waist down after the incident on the farm near Machynlleth in April 2014, said the outcome could have been very different if he had had to wait longer.

"I remember shouting at dad. He ran over to me and I knew straight away that something major was wrong," he said.

"The hardest part I remember is dad having to leave me on the floor and going up to the farmhouse to call for an ambulance."

He said that in less than 15 minutes he could hear the helicopter, saying the sound was "a huge relief".

Mr Lewis said any move to close the Powys station was "completely bonkers" in such a rural area, and waiting longer for help could be the "difference between life and death for a lot of people".

"A friend of mine had to wait nine hours for an ambulance last year. If that had happened in my case, things would have been much, much more difficult," he said.

The service said that the changes would be the "most efficient use of existing resources", upping its figures of meeting 72% of demand to 88%.

In a statement the Wales Air Ambulance Charity said moving north could see daily hours extended from 12 to 18 and two crews and two helicopters able to fly from the new base.