Outdated phones used by 999 crews ‘risk patients’ lives’
PATIENT safety in Scotland is at risk because vital equipment relies on obsolete mobile phones.
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has admitted that its entire stock of heart monitors and defibrillators – crucial to saving someone suffering a heart attack – is ‘increasingly unreliable’.
The service’s 542 machines rely on the Nokia Asha 300 mobile phone to carry out tests on patients and send results to specialists.
The phones are no longer in production and a technical glitch means that the defibrillators cannot be used with more modern models.
A new report says staff reported potential problems with the defibrillators 346 times in four years, with 64 per cent of those incidents classified as ‘adverse to patient safety’.
The report, for the SAS board, said the issue was ‘preventing effective patient assessment which can delay delivery of appropriate treatment’.
The defibrillators must now be replaced – at a cost of £12 million.
Last night, the SAS insisted all ambulance equipment was safe – but politicians demanded that the problem be addressed urgently.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said:
‘Staff warnings about the quality of machines’
‘We have made great strides in installing defibrillators across the country. You would expect the Scottish Ambulance Service to be at the forefront of that drive.
‘Instead, staff are sounding warnings about the quality of these machines. If ambulances can’t get reliable defibrillators, what chance does anyone else have?
‘This is something the Scottish Government has to address as a matter of urgency.’
A defibrillator administers an electric shock to the heart of a patient suffering a cardiac arrest.
Those used by the SAS can also carry out electrocardiographs (ECGs) which record the electrical activity of the heart, as well as measure the level of oxygen in the blood and monitor blood pressure.
The report casts doubt over their reliability for transmitting vital diagnostic information. The current defibrillators also perform tests to monitor heart activity and the information is relayed to medics using what the report called ‘outdated Bluetooth technology’. Yesterday, a spokesman for the SAS confirmed the number of incident reports relating to defibrillator units had risen to 387, including this year’s figures.
He said: ‘All the equipment in our ambulances is safe, including the defibrillator monitor units which are being replaced as part of a regular cycle.
‘In every emergency vehicle, there is a unit comprising a monitor and a defibrillator. The monitors are used routinely by our crews to assess patients, while the defibrillators are only used when a patient has experienced a cardiac arrest.
‘We are not aware of any instances where there was an adverse outcome for a patient due to a defibrillator not functioning properly.
‘The devices currently being used in our ambulances will be replaced by 2019-20 in line with our defibrillator replacement programme.’
A Scottish Government spokesman backed the investment and said: ‘The proposal will be considered by the NHS Capital Investment Group at their next meeting in July and a decision will be made shortly after that meeting.’