A pioneering bid to improve 999 services for people in rural Northumberland was under threat last night after fire- fighters' leaders voiced their opposition.
Bosses at the Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and the North-East Ambulance Service (NEAS) are backing the proposed `co-responder' scheme, which would involve retained firefighters and community paramedics working together on life-threatening emergency calls.
The idea - which won unanimous, all-party support from county councillors yesterday - is aimed at improving the 999 response and potentially saving lives in remote, rural areas by providing fire service back-up for lone paramedics.
But last night the Fire Brigades' Union said local fire crews don't support the introduction of a co-responder scheme, as a national dispute continues over the joint working initiative. Attempts by fire authorities in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to force fire crews to attend serious medical emergencies alongside the ambulance service failed in the High Court on October.
In his ruling, Justice Butterfield made it clear that co-responding cannot be forced on firefighters and the FBU is now seeking national and local discussions with managers on the controversial issue.
The Northumberland initiative comes amid concerns that community paramedics who replaced ambulances at Bellingham, Haltwhistle, Rothbury and Wooler last summer are taking too long to get to some category A 999 calls.
Last night Gary Wilson, chairman of the Northumberland FBU, said: "Rather than being the solution, co-responding as it currently operates is part of the problem. Evidence from other areas where it has been tried suggests it is being used to mask, and potentially worsen, performance problems in the ambulance service.
"Local fire crews only want what is best for the public of Northumberland. Even the most highly qualified firefighter is no match for ambulance paramedics, who have been trained for years.
"If the ambulance service is struggling to provide a timely medical response, then it should be seeking additional funding to ensure the public get the proper medical response they deserve.
"When a member of the public dials 999 with a medical emergency, they should rightly expect to get one of our highly-trained professional paramedics responding. They do not want two firefighters with basic first aid skills in a 4x4 truck.
"Firefighters have always carried out first aid for casualties at fire and road traffic incidents they attend until the ambulance arrives. However, this is very different from becoming an auxiliary ambulance service and attending purely ambulance calls."
Mr Wilson said the FBU was seeking a meeting with Northumberland Fire Service bosses to discuss the issue, but was fully supportive of plans for firefighters to receive trauma care training from the NEAS.
County councillors yesterday backed a motion by Lib Dem councillor Dougie Watkin calling for urgent talks with the NEAS over retained firefighters co-responding to rural emergencies with ambulance paramedics. Coun Watkin said the four areas where community paramedics had been introduced were `crying out' for a pilot scheme of joint working to assess its effectiveness in dealing with serious, life-threatening incidents.
Last night Northumberland's chief fire officer, Brian Hesler, said a number of fire and ambulance services across the UK were already involved in successful partnership schemes which were saving lives.
He said fire service chiefs were appealing against October's High Court ruling and a national debate was going on about levels of payments for firefighters involved in co-responding schemes.
