A BITTER and ugly war of words has exploded very publicly between two air ambulance charities at logger-heads with one another.

East Anglian Air Ambulance will no longer use a team of dedicated volunteer medics from Magpas having opted to use doctors from a private company at great cost.

Claims and counter claims have come from the charities which until now have been held in high regard by the people of Fenland who have been keen to raise funds for both.

Whatever the arguments, the net result is that both charities will have to increase fund raising to pay for what happens after the split. East Anglian Air Ambulance will need the extra funds to pay for the doctors and Magpas to provide its own air transport. Magpas, which says it has always operated at minimum cost, may be able to enter into a formal agreement with the Police over use of its helicopter.

Two charities working in tandem offering a life-saving service always seemed a great idea. Reporters from this newspaper covering incidents where accident victims were trapped or seriously injured could never fail to be impressed with the emergency life-saving care administered by Magpas medics.

The highly qualified team of Magpas volunteers have decided to stay with the charity. Magpas claims that the EAAA is already having difficulty recruiting doctors and may have to rely on doctors from overseas.

Given that both Magpas and EAAA are charities, surely the public and those who have donated so generously over the years should have a say in how they are run? The public have not been consulted and perhaps would have remained unaware of the change if Magpas had not decided to make the row public.