COMMUNITY leaders are giving ambulances bosses too easy a ride over Monmouthshire's lack of emergency cover, a health watchdog claims.

On Saturday the Argus revealed that ambulances held up waiting to drop off patients at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, cost taxpayers £180,000 last year.

Crews were stuck outside the hospital for 5,000 hours in 2002/03 - the equivalent of one ambulance off the road for 12 hours per day for a year.

The main reason is bed-blocking - beds being taken up by patients fit enough to leave hospital care but with nowhere to go - which delays ambulances crews transferring patients to hospital staff.

The figures were revealed at a meeting between representatives of the Welsh Ambulance Trust, Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust and Monmouthshire county council.

The delays were cited as a reason why an ambulance meant to serve Monmouth and Chepstow is stationed at the Coldra roundabout at junction 24 of the M4 near Newport at night.

The health officials were invited by Monmouthshire's Environment Select Committee to answer questions asked on behalf of concerned residents.

But the chief officer of Gwent Community Health Council, Colin Hobbs, who also attended the meeting, told the Argus afterwards that councillors' questions were "toothless" and didn't demand enough assurances that problems would be tackled.

Mr Hobbs said: "I was disappointed in the representatives of Monmouthshire county council.

"I didn't hear enough challenging questions or specific proposals from the select committee.

"The question left hanging in the air was 'now we have the information - what are we going to do about it?'."

But select committee chairwoman Councillor Val Smith disagreed. She said: "We learned a lot. I will now write to the committee members to ask how they feel we should take it forward at our next meeting in July.

"The answers weren't satisfactory but they were honest and based in reality.

"There's no point in fighting the ambulance service, we need to work with them to improve the situation.

"The Trust officials made it clear they appreciated the openness of the meeting and for that reason they'll return to work with us again."