Paramedic Attendance
To maintain the 8 minute response time, it appears all Paramedic NHS Trusts position numerous, single crew, "paramedic cars" at various locations throughout their area of operation. More often than not, the paramedics, who crew the car, spend their entire shift waiting for an incident to occur.
When a serious incident does occur, the single crew car attends the casualty and administers immediate assistance. However, due to the reliance on single crew cars, it is often the case that when a paramedic calls for an ambulance to transport the casualty to hospital, an ambulance is not available - the few available ambulances are engaged in transporting other patients to A & E.
On occasion casualties wait over two hours for transport to arrive and on other occasions, the local Paramedic NHS has to pay the St John's Ambulance Brigade to attend and transport the patients to hospital. The paramedics are aggrieved because they are kept for an inordinate amount of time at an incident - moreover, St John's Ambulances do not have the specialised paramedic equipment on board and their crews are not trained to deal with the potential emergencies that might occur
We are told it is only a matter of time before someone dies (it may have already happened). Can you throw any light on the subject? Whether you are a patient or a paramedic, Whistle Blowers needs to hear from you.