Call handlers at South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, based at Bradley Stoke, North Bristol are well aware that they are understaffed, underfunded and under-resourced in many areas like the rest of the country.

They are no longer surprised when regularly receiving emergency calls from places like London. But imagine the expressions on the faces of dumbfounded frontline staff when they received an emergency call from, er, Germany!

Are response times in the South West similar to a country about 640 miles away?