THE dedication of all those who work so hard to save lives for Lancashire Ambulance Service is beyond any doubt.

Day in and day out skilled crews attend the sort of scenes that the rest of us thankfully are only likely to experience once in a lifetime.

There is also no suggestion that the outcome would have been any different if each of the three ambulances attending the awful fire which killed the three young Waddington sisters had carried a paramedic.

But the point made by an ambulance technician today is nevertheless a vitally important one.

If the three girls had been still alive at the scene the single paramedic would have faced the dilemma of which to treat first - knowing that his or her decision could effectively be a life sentence for that child and a death sentence for the other two.

The Lancashire Ambulance Service says that they aim to have a paramedic on each ambulance attending emergencies but annual leave and sickness mean that does not always happen.

They have a backlog of technicians waiting to go on the 12 week training course to upgrade them and also point out that the government does not insist that there should be a paramedic in every ambulance.

But whether it is a matter of suitable candidates, hard cash or both one thing is certain - we would all prefer an ambulance with a paramedic to arrive at our own emergency, whatever it costs.