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NORTH EDITION
Your English Newspaper
roundtownnews.com
Issue 744
17-23 JAN 2014
Red Cross cash crisis EMERGENCY MEDICAL response teams at a popular Costa Blanca resort face a looming crisis because of an aging fleet of Red Cross ambulances. by Jack Troughton THREE OF the Javea-based vehicles are scheduled to be retired this year – in May, June and July – which would leave the service badly exposed. However, the holiday town’s Red Cross chiefs are confident they will be given a muchneeded breathing space with special dispensation from the government to extend the ambulance’s life by another two years. They told RTN that the cashstrapped organisation still urgently needed public support because like other branches of the Red Cross, it has ongoing commitments in the community that were stretching finances. And it is hoped to involve British expats
by recruiting them as members of the Red Cross – annual subscriptions as ‘socios’ are a source of income – and to organise fund raising events. Javea has a Red Cross ambulance on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. During the high season there are three vehicles and crews on standby round the clock.The most recent figures reveal the fleet answered 1,180 emergencies last year – the call outs highest in July and September and peaking in August. Speaking at the headquarters in Avenida Alicante in Javea’s Old Town, Red Cross coordinator Maica Aranda Valles said: “We hope to have all four ambulances for two more years but we will not know until May. Continued on page 8
Maica (right) and Red Cross colleagues