GREAT Western Ambulance Trust staff have voiced their concerns over staffing levels after a lone paramedic was sent out to tend to a choking toddler.

Three-year-old Ellie Conlon, from Redditch in Worcestershire, died after choking on a piece of sausage during a family holiday in Weston-super-Mare in July.

A policeman had stopped to try and help the sick youngster, as her parents desperately tried to dislodge the food. There was only one ambulance on call in the town on that day - and it did not have a full crew of a driver and a paramedic.

The lone paramedic, who drove himself to the scene, had to accept an offer from the policeman to drive them to hospital. Lack of cover on some shifts has been blamed on a five per cent budget cut since Avon Ambulance merged with Gloucestershire and Wiltshire services.