CUTS to the ambulance service in Ongar resulted in a man being taken for treatment in the back of a removal van, it has been claimed.
Paramedics were called to treat a man who had fallen from his bicycle in Loughton.
A rapid response vehicle was dispatched and a paramedic attended Andrew Knight, of Buckhurst Hill, who came off his bike on a roundabout following an oil spill on Monday morning last week.
The paramedic requested an ambulance, which was en route to the scene when it was diverted to a life-threatening emergency.
The air ambulance was then dispatched, but was unable to land close enough to the scene of the accident.
A removal van was commandeered from a nearby business by paramedics to take the patient about one mile to the waiting helicopter.
The cyclist was subsequently flown to Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow, some 11 miles away from the incident in Church Hill, suffering from injuries to his pelvis and abdomen.
He also had problems with his blood pressure.
According to a source working within the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, had Ongar Ambulance Station been crewed, its staff would have attended the emergency in Loughton.
"Ongar was not crewed Monday or Tuesday," said the source.
"There's only been two people working there all summer.
"The trust keeps saying there's seven staff there, but there is not."
The trust has to make £50 million of savings over the next five years, but it denies Ongar station is to shut as part of staff rota redesigns, which will see rural staff redeployed to urban areas.
However, our source believes that cuts are to blame for Ongar station not being crewed.
"Because there's only two people working in Ongar, they only do the odd shift, normally it would have been crewed during the day.
"The Ongar vehicle would have backed up Loughton.
"You would not believe what a shambles it is."
The trust denied budgetary cuts had had any impact upon the incident.
Spokesman Gary Sanderson said: "Ambulance crews at the scenes of any incidents have to think quickly on their feet and make rapid decisions to treat and stabilise their patients.
"On this occasion, the crews were aware their ambulance en route to them was diverted to a more life-threatening call so the decision was to use a vehicle to assist them to get the patient to the awaiting aircraft.
"Crews often commandeer vehicles to help transport their patients to awaiting helicopters and this is publicised nationally in adverse weather scenarios like heavy snowfall, where the communities pull together to help out in time of need by assisting the emergency services in 4x4 and agricultural vehicles."
