This conference
has major concerns over Ambulance trusts using inappropriate
methods in responding to 999 calls including:
-
Excessive deployment of Community Responders
-
Use of
the unregulated voluntary and private sector.
The concept of
Community or First Responders was initiated to widen the
availability of early defibrillation in immediately life
threatening situations in areas that were relatively
inaccessible.
Conference notes
that these resources are now being utilised on a wider scale in
order to meet response time targets at the lowest possible
cost. It is also the case in some trusts that voluntary and
private sector ambulance services are being used on a routine
basis to deal with the ongoing rise in demand on ambulance
services instead of increasing permanent staffing levels.
Conference calls
on the SGE to raise awareness of this issue and to campaign for:
i.
Stricter
controls on the use of community responders;
ii.
Ambulance and
all other NHS targets to embody minimum quality of care
standards in addition to any other criteria such as time
measurement;
iii.
A halt to the
use of the voluntary and private sector in NHS ambulance
provision save for exceptional circumstances such as protracted
major incidents.
UNISON Ambulance
Committee.
