Paramedics in Oxfordshire have been criticised for relying on firefighters to help save patients' lives in remote areas of the county.

Since March, Fire and Rescue Service staff in Chipping Norton, Bampton and Thame have been summoned to 146 999 calls when Oxfordshire Ambulance Service crews have been too far away to get to patients within their eight-minute target.

As a result of their actions, they have used CPR -- to start a person's heart during cardiac arrest -- eight times, and given oxygen 68 times.

But Chipping Norton residents claim they are getting an inadequate service from paramedics and should not have to rely on firefighters, who have three days training and are unable to help in most medical emergencies.

At a meeting yesterday (January 26) of the Oxfordshire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, councillors and campaigners urged members to take their grievances to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. Clive Hill, a member of the Chipping Norton and District Health Care Users' Group, said: "Emergency ambulances are rarely seen in the area or at the fire station, where they are meant to have a stand-by point. As a result, patients do not receive help quickly.

"One elderly man collapsed in Churchill and an ambulance arrived 25-30 minutes later, while it took 40 minutes for an ambulance to get to an ill baby in Chipping Norton.

"We also believe that using firefighters is not proper use of services. People in our area are unwittingly playing a healthcare lottery."

The scrutiny committee was told that the fire co-responder scheme cost the county council £26,000 in uniforms, training and manpower, and councillors have agreed to finance it for another year. Committee member Simon Hoare said: "I'm anxious about the lack of training that the fire service has."

Despite the concerns, statistics for March-November 2005 show that Oxfordshire Ambulance Service exceeded Government response targets in eight of the nine months.

But committee members agreed that if the service was meeting only the target -- getting to 75 per cent of patients within eight minutes -- with help from firefighters, then it was inadequate.

Paramedic managers will be asked to their next meeting, in March, to discuss the situation, before the committee decides whether or not to take the matter to Ms Hewitt.