A NEW £47,000 ambulance is on permanent stand-by to bring critically ill babies and children from across southern England to Oxford for specialist treatment.

The vehicle is ready at the John Radcliffe Hospital to pick up a doctor and nurse crew and be on its way to collect a patient within half an hour.

Dr Emily Williams, director of the paediatric intensive care unit, said: "The new ambulance means we'll be able to get our own teams out to other hospitals as quickly as possible, and bring back the children as safely as possible.

"We'll wheel the cots on board at the other end, and we'll have everything we need for the journey - the skills and the technology." Its brief is to respond to calls for help from other hospitals and bring youngsters back to the John Radcliffe children's unit, which has been chosen as the leading regional centre because of its high standards.

Up to 60 children have to be brought to the six-bed paediatric unit from outside Oxfordshire because other hospitals do not have the facilities to cope. Typically the children have been involved in road accidents or are desperately ill with diseases like meningitis.

Until now, there has been no specialist vehicle available for the delicate transfers.

The children have had to be carried on ordinary front-line ambulances, which are not designed to carry intensive care cots and their array of hi-tech equipment.

In addition, normal ambulances might be busy when needed. If they are taken on long journeys out of Oxfordshire to collect ill children, it leaves one fewer ambulance to respond to local 999 calls.

Vic Richards, ambulance trust operational manager, said: "Everything's been adapted for looking after the little ones."

Local patients will also benefit because the ambulance will be used for transferring patients around Oxfordshire when it is on stand-by.

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