Pathways Support Vehicle Update
At a Trust arranged strategy meeting in October 2010 we were told about a new type of vehicle which will be introduced called a Pathways Support Vehicle (PSV). The Trust told us that this vehicle would be really important in delivering NHS Pathways. The vehicle would be a PTS vehicle working alongside A&E operations to take people to hospital that needed admission but who don't require a fully trained ambulance crew. The planned implementation of the PSVs is April 2011.
This vehicle is being introduced as a cost saving exercise and also to free up front line resources to deal with the more unwell patients. The idea is that stable and triaged patients can be transported using these vehicles. To make this work the Trust needs to convince its workforce that these vehicles provide a safe patient and staff experience and that clinicians requesting a PSV as back up are clinically supported to safety net and refer patients using this route. At the January JNCC sub group the Trust responded to us that they will support all staff that use clinical observations to make this assessment. It is always important to write a detailed clinical record giving reasons and explanations for decisions made. We discussed the PSVs at our December branch executive meeting and we wrote to the CEO to ask for a written proposal and some answers to questions the branch had asked. We were concerned that this vehicle would be tasked to emergency calls like the UTV and CSV types before it. The Trust has remained adamant that the PSVs will not respond to emergency calls as a double ACA or ECA crew. We can tell you that the Trust has informed us that the crew will be ACA trained with options for added skills still being discussed, they will be tasked to patients who have been appropriately triaged by a healthcare professional and that YOU will be consulted on these changes. There are opportunities with any development and in this case we feel that our ACA members could benefit from some well deserved training and development and possibly a route through from PTS to A&E that so many members feel is currently missing. We now look to our members to see whether this new vehicle has support for its success. Please see the letters to and from the Trust here:
PSV Trust response to UNISON Jan 11
