Paramedics scheme ‘will mean a faster response’

Jul 10 2007 by Jessica Shaughnessy, Liverpool Daily Post

RADICAL changes to the region’s ambulance service will mean faster response times to emergency calls, a senior official said last night.

Paul Ferguson, Merseyside and Cheshire’s area director for the North West Ambulance Service, said a pilot scheme to be trialled in Wirral next month will be “hugely beneficial”.

As part of the scheme, first highlighted in yesterday’s Daily Post, paramedics will be deployed to emergencies in fast response vehicles ahead of ambulances.

Yesterday Mr Ferguson released further details of the scheme, which he said would mean a wave of new resources, better trained paramedics and a faster service more suited to residents’ needs. Under the Wirral pilot, expected to last until the end of this year before being rolled out across the region, paramedics will decide whether the patient needs to be taken to hospital in an ambulance or a smaller, less highly equipped High Dependency Vehicle.

The pilot scheme is the first step in a five-year strategy for the ambulance service, which will eventually see some patients being treated at home by paramedics.

The ultimate aim is for paramedics to decide whether or not the patient should go to hospital, or even if they just need a GP or to attend a clinic.

Mr Ferguson said: “At the moment, when we get a 999 call, in the vast majority of cases, we take the patients to hospital in an ambulance, which is the equivalent to a mobile intensive care bed.

“But most people can be safely and appropriately transported to hospital in a high dependency vehicle – the same as a hospital ward bed.

“To help us with the ever- increasing demand, we needed to think of something that could free up the ambulances.

“Under the pilot scheme, we will be putting more response cars on to the streets and more high dependency vehicles.”

Mr Ferguson stressed the scheme would not in any way delay the arrival of an ambulance if a patient was in the middle of a dire emergency.

He said: “As soon as we get a call, the nearest vehicle will automatically be dispatched.

“If we receive any information on the call that the person may need an intensive care ambulance, then one will be deployed.

“In other cases, when the para- medic arrives on the scene, they will decide how it is best to appropriately transport them to hospital.”

Mr Ferguson said paramedics in Wirral have already received more training to prepare them for the changes. He said: “As a result of this pilot, the paramedics will be better trained, there will be more vehicles in the area. Response times should be reduced dramatically.”

jessicashaughnessy