<b>By Phil Ward
Health Correspondent

Felixstowe is to be the first town in the UK to replace ambulances with hi-tech, all-purpose hovercraft.</b>

The exciting plans, revealed exclusively in today's Suffolk Gazette, will mean crews can answer emergencies in the North Sea, in towns and villages on be other side of the rivers Deben and Orwell - and on land in Felixstowe itself.

Area Manager of the East of England Ambulance Service, Christopher Cockerell, said: "It has recently come to our notice that Felixstowe is surrounded on three sides by water. This has seriously limited the range and capability of the town’s traditional land-based ambulances.

"Under these new plans, our dedicated staff will be reorganised into Coastal Rescue Ambulance Paramedic teams, or CRAP teams for short."

The hovercraft will be able to use their amphibious capabilities to respond to incidents on land, sea and river.

<center><a href="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/image.jpg"><img src="http://www.suffolkgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/image.jpg" alt="image" width="463" height="314" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1799" /></a></center><center><I>The new ambulance hovercraft on trial in Russia</centre></I><br><br>

"We’re very excited by the new proposals as it enables us to respond to incidents in previously inaccessible areas such as Bawdsey, Shotley and the Trimley Marshes, which can be treacherous.

"We sent a crew in there several years ago to reports of a man who’d sustained severe nettle rash whilst walking the dog - but we lost the crew.

"They were found following an extensive air and sea search six days later in The Three Mariners pub. They were in a terrible state, suffering a loss of co-ordination, slurred speech and no recollection of the incident whatsoever."

Locals have raised concerns about the new craft’s ability to tackle some of the town’s traffic calming measures, particularly the vicious speed humps on Grange Road.

Additional hazards include the backwash from the craft’s twin six-foot fans which recently blew an elderly lady through a garden hedge.

Mr Cockerell said: "We’d recommend the public not to stand anywhere near our back-ends, particularly during the hours of darkness."

The plans have proved controversial south of the border in Essex, where the Harwich Ambulance Station will be closed because incidents in the town will be attended by Felixstowe hovercraft instead.

There has been a long tradition of amphibious transport in Felixstowe, from where the RAF used to operate military seaplanes.

Mr Cockerell said: "We did run a trial many years ago using a seaplane ambulance - but this ended badly when it responded to a call inland at Stowmarket."

The new ambulances cannot come soon enough given the recent spate of shark attacks off the Suffolk coast linked to sightings of a Great White in the River Deben.

An Ambulance Service spokesman declined to comment on whether or not the new craft could also have guns mounted on the deck in support of Suffolk Police’s shoot-to-kill policy and work in conjunction with the force’s Apache Helicopter.
 