'RORKE'S DRIFT' Underpressure ambulance crews across Bridgend dub their area...

PARAMEDICS in Bridgend are under so much pressure that they dubbed the area ``Rorke's Drift''.

Health watchdogs will hear tomorrow how a rising tide of calls and lack of resources has led crews to compare their workload with the epic battle portrayed in the film Zulu, in which 104, mostly Welsh, soldiers held out against 3,000 African warriors.

The revelation comes from a report compiled by Colin Thomson, a member of Bridgend's Community Health Council.

He attended a meeting of the Welsh Ambulance NHS Trust at the end of May. In the report he states: ``Dave Ellis, central and west region ambulance officer, attended the meeting and gave a very detailed response to the problems the ambulance service are currently experiencing.

``Mr Ellis indicated the pressures experienced by the Bridgend ambulance men were such, the area was being called after a certain outpost that figured very prominently in the Zulu wars.''

Bridgend's urgent response times are the second worst in Wales. Only 37 per cent of the most serious category A calls are reached within eight minutes. The national target is 60 per cent.

As previously reported in the Echo, crews complain they are expected to do too much.

Steve Snelling, a paramedic since 1989 and a union representative, said last month: ``We only have five crews in the area during the day and three at night.

``And we frequently get called up to provide cover in the Rhondda or Port Talbot or the Vale of Glamorgan.'' Paramedics claim holdups with hospital admissions also contribute to poor response times.

Health bosses are investing pounds 2.2m in a new rapid response service for the area. Medically trained staff - less qualified than paramedics - will be sent to emergency calls in a bid to cut response times.

But by March 2004 they still only expect to respond to 52 per cent of urgent calls within eight minutes.Abby Alford