BY IAN CROUCH
Crews at Rutherford Ambulance Station are standing down as a stalemate with ambulance management deepens.
Crews are only responding to urgent or life-threatening calls.
They say a new ambulance deployed to their station means paramedics are now being sent to cover staff shortages as far away as Muswellbrook, Nelson Bay and Belmont instead of the needs of the growing population of Maitland as originally intended.
But the Health Services Union says the extra resource is needed locally.
