Ambulance staffing 'puts lives at risk'

Nov 24 2009 by Helen Rae, The Journal

SENIOR paramedics and union bosses say lives are being put at risk in the North East by the use of "inadequately-trained" ambulance crews.

Concerns have been raised that Emergency Care Support Workers (ECSWs) – who are trained for up to nine weeks to administer basic emergency treatment – are being called to cases without a paramedic where their skills are not deemed enough to deal with the emergency.

In Ryhope, Sunderland, as many as three ambulance crews manned only by ECSWs – with no paramedic or advanced technician on board – regularly attend incidents.

But health chiefs at the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) say the deployment of ECSWs as a first-response team has dramatically increased the survival rate of cardiac arrest.

Trevor Johnson, Unison’s lead officer for health, said: “The dispatching of ECSWs without a paramedic is something we have been concerned about for some time and we’re currently in discussions with the North East Ambulance Service about the issue.

“We are not confident that an ECSW attending a call on their own has all the necessary skills to deal with the medical situation they are presented with and, as a result, lives could be put at risk.”

He added: “It is a problem that needs to be dealt with. There should always be one paramedic present with an ECSW.

“There is no question the idea of Emergency Care Support Workers has been put in place by Government so that ambulance crews can reach their eight-minute response targets.

“We are not levying criticism at the North East Ambulance Service – it is a Government initiative that has been put in place.”