News Release

5th September 2006

REMOVAL OF RESQPODS FROM AMBULANCES - 'NOT A CLINICAL BASED DECISION'

Following new information given to Michael Fabricant, he has condemned the decision to remove ResQPOD equipment from Staffordshire Ambulances and says that new information puts the lie to claims that they have been removed on clinical grounds. "This political decision has nothing to do with clinical considerations and is becoming a national disgrace.

"Having had discussions with clinicians, ambulance workers, and Advanced Circulatory Systems - the makers of ResQPOD in Minneapolis in the US - I now know that claims made by the new managers of the Staffordshire Ambulance Service that there are clinical doubts about the effectiveness of ResQPOD is patent nonsense", Michael Fabricant says. "ResQPOD is an effective way of saving lives of those who have suffered a severe heart attack and the unit is in wide use with ambulance services in the United States and Ambulance Services in France, Germany, and Scandinavia. There are no doubts there that ResQPOD saves lives. And Roger Thayne, former head of the Staffordshire Ambulance Service, is correct in saying it saves the lives of around 20 heart attack victims a year in our county who would otherwise have died. It's clear that ResQPOD's forced removal from Staffordshire Ambulances has all to do with the take-over of the Staffordshire Ambulance Service by Birmingham.

"There has long been a postcode lottery in medical care, but up until now, we have been the winners - at least as far as our Ambulance Services are concerned. Now, the removal of the ResQPODs from Staffordshire ambulances has reduced the service to the same standard as those in the West Midlands where you are four and a half times more likely to die from a heart attack than in Staffordshire.

"Whoever has made the decision to remove ResQPOD should be ashamed of themselves. I just hope they don't have a heart attack and in their last dying moments realise that if only they had access to the equipment they removed, their life could have been saved."

Michael Fabricant has now spoken at length to clinicians using ResQPOD and to Dr Keith Lurie MD, Professor of Internal and Emergency Medicine at the University Medical School of Minnesota in the United States. He is also the Chief Medical Officer for the company that makes ResQPOD.

Dr Lurie tells Michael Fabricant "Some of the major Ambulance services using the ResQPOD in the US include: Boston Massachusetts, Hartford Connecticut, Long Island, Miami Beach Florida, and counties surrounding San Francisco and Seattle. Cities in Germany, France, and Scandinavia all use the ResQPOD. The German Navy Rescue program widely deploys the combination of the ResQPOD and a manual version of the LUCAS also used in Staffordshire. There are 3 cities in Great Britain that have bought and use the ResQPOD.