I have a TV question

[TheMightyFavog]

You know the Show Doc Martin? They show it here on PBS in the states, and I love it. Sort of a British version of House.

However, one thing is bugging me. Portwenn has a RNLI station, and a police officer, yet the closest Ambulance is 45 min. away?

Odd, I'd think Portwenn would have at the very least have its own ambulance crewed by Volunteer EMTs.

Although, the thought of Bert Large as an EMT... :scared:

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Don't know if they do use volunteer ambulance crews

I haven't heard of them (where I do know of part time firemen, for instance). In reality, it looks as though nowhere in Cornwall is more than about 10 miles as the crow flies from an ambulance station - map here, so even with windy rural roads, I'd guess they're within 20 minutes of one. Artistic licence, I think.

[TheMightyFavog]

2. We have them here in the US.

They're very prevalent in rural areas, however, they lack the training of paramedics, who are almost always full time professionals.

Maybe the lack of volunteer EMS in the UK has something to do with the NHS.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Yeah, but compared to the US, Cornwall isn't all that sparsely populated

Area: 1,376 sq mi
Population: 531,600

If you compared it to a US state, Delaware is the closest:

Area: 2,490 sq mi
Population: 873,092

Or, comparing it with the county you live in (I looked up your profile), Cornwall is more than 10 times as densely populated, but about the same area.

[Mr Creosote]

4. Portwenn

I don't know what an EMT is, but the volunteer ambulances we have here are St John's. AFAIK they cover major events - so in Cornwall that would be things like Obby Oss and Flora Day.
In reality "Portwenn" is about 8 miles from Wadebridge so I imagine the ambulance could do it in less than quarter of an hour. I don't know what sort of lifeboat Portwenn has in the show, but I would imagine that there are quite a lot more lifeboat stations with the small inshore boats that Port Isaac has, than there are ambulance stations in Cornwall.

I've left Cornwall now but the big issue there with ambulances was not the coverage, but with the merging of the services the control centre moved to somewhere like Taunton which meant that the dispatchers had a very poor idea of how to direct the ambulances. And of course when there was the big fire in Newquay Cornwall did not have the equipment to deal with it.